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Windows IT Pro Magazine 
[Focus] AD Disaster Recovery Proper disaster-recovery planning begins long before a failure occurs. Discover what you need to back up and what methods you can use to ensure a successful recovery from an AD failure. — Robert McIntosh  Creating an Online Store Building a comprehensive, powerful, and cost-effective Web site so your business can conduct commerce over the Internet requires careful planning and foresight. — Debra B. Diehl Datacenter in Action Find out how Health e Connex and Cisco Systems are using Datacenter to run the enterprise. — Kathy Ivens Multilanguage Support in Windows 2000 Professional Take advantage of Win2K Pro's multilanguage features. — Zubair Alexander Securing Your Thin or Lean Client/Server Environment When deploying a thin or lean client/server Windows NT solution keep in mind the security implications of three technologies--remote console, API redirection, and client-side persistent caching. — Craig Barth Security UPDATE, June 5, 2002 Will Electronic Eavesdropping Become a M-o-o-t Point? Microsoft's Buffer-Overrun Problem: Fact or Fallacy? Microsoft Patches Critical Exchange Hole and new IE Update Blocks IFRAME in Outlook HTML Messages. All this and more in this months issue. — Various Authors Speedy Web Content Delivery with CDNs Attract and retain Internet customers by using CDNs to speed Web content delivery. — Tao Zhou Take It to the Limit NT's Response Probe helps you determine the performance of a server's hardware and software configuration. — Joe Rudich Terminal Services in NT 4.0 Domains Review Terminal Services basics and discover two common headaches for setting up Terminal Services in an NT 4.0 domain. — Christa Anderson Tools for the Control Freak Win2K's Terminal Services lets you perform not only server-based computing but also remote control of other Win2K servers. — Christa Anderson Windows 2000 Performance Tools Explore Win2K's enhanced performance tools and walk through some examples that show you how to capitalize on these new features. — Curt Aubley [Feature] Windows 2000 Magazine Salary Survey Find out what Windows 2000 Magazine's readers had to say about salaries, benefits, job characteristics, and more during a reader survey. — Barrie Sosinsky , et al. Windows 2000 Magazine Selects Best of Show Finalists for Microsoft Tech Ed 2001 Penton Technology Media has announced 40 finalists for the Windows 2000 Magazine Best of Show Awards for Microsoft Tech Ed 2001. Find out who's on the list. — Editors 10 Reasons to Buy Windows NT 5.0 — Jonathan Chau 6 Tips to Keep Exchange Server 2003 Humming As a server ages, it can become a lot less reliable. But you can prolong your Exchange Server’s life, and avoid nasty surprises, by following these common-sense maintenance tips. — Brien Posey A First Look at Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Take a tour through the new Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V technology. Get an overview of its microkernel architecture, learn how to install it, and get an early look at how it stacks up against the industry leader, VMware ESX Server. — Michael Otey A Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) Primer Leverage NAP to enforce standardized protection, sanitization, and remediation based on organizationally defined health policies. — Jan De Clercq Active Directory Growth Tracker: A Script to Count Objects Learn how to use this script to track Active Directory objects so you stay current on your AD numbers. — Jim Turner Advanced Security in Exchange 2000, Part 1 Exchange 2000's updated Key Management Service offers expanded S/MIME capabilities. — Jan De Clercq Advanced Security in Exchange 2000, Part 2 Microsoft's messaging clients integrate with Advanced Security to support S/MIME security enhancements. — Jan De Clercq Advanced Security in Exchange 2000, Part 3 Discover the S/MIME enhancements and capabilities that Microsoft has added to Outlook 2000 Service Release 1a in an effort to keep your email more secure. — Jan De Clercq An "Unkludgy" Way to Back Up Files A reader created a batch file to back up a database. However, the batch file was a kludge, so he wanted to write a better script. Curious as to how a scripting pro would go about it, he contacted Scripting Pro VIP. The result is BackupFile.vbs. — Karen Bemowski , et al. Analyze Network Events with OSSIM Toolset A network security tool set, OSSIM offers a correlation- and risk-assessment engine that sets it apart from other open-source security solutions. — Dustin Puryear Are You Ready? Is Microsoft Ready? Are you ready for the year 2000 (Y2K)? Paula Sharick exposes the latest tricks to prepare your software for the new millennium. — Paula Sharick Athlon! John Ruley discusses his experiences purchasing and setting up a 1GHz Athlon system from a local dealer and highlights the pluses and minuses. — John D. Ruley Authentication Options The problems associated with using usernames and passwords for authentication are causing many companies to search for alternative authentication methods. Here are three options. — John Howie Avoid Windows Server 2008 Integration Challenges Before you implement Windows Server 2008, benefit from an expert’s lessons-learned about integration with AD, compatibility with Microsoft server applications, virtualization, backup, and antivirus and antispyware. — Alan Sugano Back Pressure Changes in Exchange 2007 SP1 Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 brought improved performance to the back pressure feature, but you might have some tuning to do to ensure your servers are taking advantage of the changes. — Tony Redmond Backup and Recovery Basics Every business needs a comprehensive data protection plan. Here's how to begin creating one for your company. — David Chernicoff Bounce Unwanted Files Out of Your Folders A new file screening tool in the Windows 2003 R2 File Server Resource Manager toolset lets you block certain files or file types from entering a folder or notify an administrator about the files and take some action. — Mark Burnett Chat with Daragh Morrissey Talk with Daragh Morrissey about clustering with Exchange. — Daragh Morrissey Clean Up Your Shortcut Names If you want to change the verbose names Windows automatically uses for new shortcuts, you can modify a registry setting to make new shortcut names cleaner and use a simple script to clean up existing shortcut names. — Alex K. Angelopoulos Collaborate Using Office OneNote 2007 Use OneNote 2007 to drive team participation and enhance communication by creating a shared digital notebook to capture ideas and share information. — Will Kelly Collecting and Analyzing Event and System Logs Use EventCombMT to collect event and system logs from multiple remote locations. — John Howie Coming Soon ... Windows & .NET Magazine Will Become Windows IT Pro! Here's some exciting and important changes at Windows & .NET Magazine. Effective with our September issue, we will relaunch as Windows IT Pro. — Publisher Computerized Voting Can Work After challenging readers to devise a design for implementing a computerized voting system, Kathy Ivens reveals the contest winners and explains their approach. — Kathy Ivens Configuring Exchange Server 2007 UM Watch step by step as J. Peter Bruzzese shows you how to configure your Exchange Server 2007 environment for unified messaging (UM). — J. Peter Bruzzese Configuring UDDI Services The UDDI protocol provides an infrastructure that lets you describe and discover Web services. — Tim McCarthy Control Application Execution with SRP Group Policy's software restriction policy (SRP) feature gives admins a powerful tool to control what code their users can run. Learn to use hash and path rules to set up application whitelists and blacklists and maintain a more secure environment. — Darren Mar-Elia Crash Course in P2V Migration Physical-to-virtual (P2V) migration can be just what you need to preserve legacy systems on orphaned workstations. Follow these steps for a smooth transition. — James Bannan Creating a Storage Management Policy, Part 1 Ongoing storage management directly affects users. Users need a clear set of guidelines defining the rules and responsibilities for storage management. Learn how to develop a clear set of guidelines defining your company's storage management policy. — Editors Creating a Storage Management Policy, Part 2 In Part 1 of this article you learned how to develop a clear set of guidelines defining your company's storage management policy. Part 2 completes the tips for helping users buy into the rules and responsibilities for ongoing storage management. — Editors Creating Applications with ADSI and VB ADSI is a powerful interface with which you can access many NT features. Here is nine steps and an example of how you can use ADSI and VB to create applications — Ken Spencer Creating SQL Server Databases If database administration has been recently added to your list of duties, you'll appreciate these step-by-step instructions about how to create and maintain SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 7.0 databases. — Michael D. Reilly Digging into SSMS Explore some lesser-known SQL Server Management Studio features that can help you better manage queries, organize scripts and other task resources, and report database and server statistics. — Roman Rehak Disaster-Preparedness Checklist Be ready if a disaster strikes. Plan ahead and create a disaster-recovery plan now to help your business survive. — David Chernicoff Exchange Server and Messaging Survey Take the Windows IT Pro Exchange Server and Messaging Survey and let us know what content you need. — Editors Exploring NET Commands — Kelly Smith Featured How-to Video: Configure Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging In these 3 videos from J. Peter Bruzzese, review the features of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007's Unified Messaging and walk through configuring unified messaging in your Exchange 2007 environment. — Anne Grubb Finding and Fixing NT Memory Leaks Memory leaks occur when worker threads are created but not deleted, and when a thread allocates but doesn’t release memory. Corrective action includes updating software; stopping and starting the application responsible for the leak; and rebooting. — Paula Sharick First Look at SBS 2003 Security See how well SBS 2003 meets the goals of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative. — Paula Sharick Getting the Best Performance Out of BackOffice Server BackOffice Server configuration for optimum performance is often more of a black art than an exact science. — David Chernicoff Graphics Cards for Every Budget Check out these five graphics cards to find the right mix of features, price, and performance for your next upgrade. — Jonathan Chau Groove Server 2007 Makes Online Collaboration Easier Groove Server 2007 offers useful tools for online collaboration, such as SharePoint access and synchronization, server backup and relay, discussion forums, and client-to-client synchronization, and you can manage it inhouse or via a hosted service. — J. Peter Bruzzese Group Policy for Mobile Users Learn how to use Group Policy in Win2K to enforce restrictions on users who don't have a direct connection to your LAN. — Emmett Dulaney How I Secured One Company's Network Here's one way to secure a network while maintaining usability—using virtual machines, a virtual network, and Log Parser, and preinstalling common ActiveX components. — Mark Burnett How IT and Volume Licensing Can Work for Your Medium-Sized Business — Michael Risse How Many Users Will Exchange Server Support? To successfully deploy Exchange Server 5.5, you must focus on the effects Exchange Server configuration can have on day-to-day server administration, and not just on performance and scalability. — Jerry Cochran How Reliable Are Your NT Applications? How well will a system operate with your particular applications and workloads? The most direct answer lies in explicit testing of your system with the OS, application, and fault-tolerant support that you'll be using. — Timothy Tsai , et al. How to Solve 6 Aggravating Office 2007 Behaviors Learn fixes for six Office 2007 aggravations—documents opening in full screen, security warnings that disable functionality, two SharePoint document flaws, copying external HTML data, and document-version proliferation. — Dan Holme I Want Computerized Elections! Kathy Ivens shares her thoughts on the current elections and asks the question, Why isn’t the US election process computerized? — Kathy Ivens Installing Microsoft Cluster Server Planning, preparing, and installing your cluster server software. — Brad Cooper Installing MTS and MSMQ in a Clustered Environment Learn about applications accessing Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) or Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) running in a clustered environment. — Anders Samuelsson Installing SQL Server Are you a network administrator who has recently become a database administrator, too? Here's your guide to setting up SQL Server 2000 or SQL Server 7.0. — Michael D. Reilly Integrating Directory and Certificate Services Businesses often secure transactions on their Web sites by using digital certificates. This article describes how to install Netscape's Directory Server and Certificate Server to work together. — William Wong Integrating Microsoft Exchange Server's KMS and Certificate Server Ensuring secure transactions among Exchange Server users. — William Wong Interact and Win a Windows IT Pro T-Shirt Tell us about the most surprising thing you learned when assessing the security of your network. We'll send a T-shirt to the reader whose surprising finding surprises us the most. — Jerry Cochran Introducing Internet Information Services 5.0 IIS 5.0 might look like its predecessor, but it includes several key changes under the hood. — Ken Spencer Introducing System Center Mobile Device Manager Microsoft offers robust, secure mobile functionality for the enterprise with System Center Mobile Device Manager (MDM) 2008. MDM takes advantage of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices, and brings more security to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 mobile messaging. — Brien Posey Introduction to Microsoft Project 2000 Microsoft's latest offering in project management software plays a role in individual projects as well as providing an enterprisewide solution. Find out if it can fit the needs of everyone in your organization. — Donald Shanfelt IP Security in Windows 2000 Windows 2000 includes IPSec, the IPv6 security protocol that lets you secure your network and keep existing applications and network hardware. Find out how IPSec works and how to implement it. — Tao Zhou Is SBS 2003 Right for You? Learn about the key features, design, and upgrade possibilities of SBS 2003—a Windows 2003 domain in a box. — Christa Anderson It's Time-Change Time… Again! Prepare your Microsoft Windows systems for the changeover to Daylight Saving Time with help from Windows IT Pro's library of time-change articles. — Anne Grubb JFFNMS survey Is JFFNMS as good as Doug Toombs says it is? Share your experiences with using the software. Complete our survey, and get a Windows IT Pro T-shirt! — Editors Laptop of the Month: Dell's Inspiron 4000 My first "laptop of the month" is Dell's stunning Inspiron 4000. Dell currently sells two lines of business laptops. I chose an Inspiron 4000 because it's the perfect middle ground between the super-small Latitude LS and the Inspiron 8000 behemoth. — Paul Thurrott Leveraging Managed Functions in Computed Columns Get an introduction to the concept of managed computed columns and see a simple example of one that implements CLR integration string-parsing functionality. — Derek Comingore Leveraging the Power of Exchange Public Folders You can begin to use Microsoft Exchange Public Folders to reduce the amount of email in your inbox and empower users to manage these folders, thereby reducing the stress on your IT department. — Paula Sharick License 6.0: The New Deal Microsoft has pushed back the introduction of License 6.0-again. Find out more about this new “simplified” plan. — Kathy Ivens Look, Ma-No ICA! When the time came to find a thin-client solution for its manufacturing plants, Motorola's Semiconductor Product Sector decided on an unconventional choice. — Christa Anderson Make the Most of SharePoint Portal Server Find answers to common questions and tips for extending SharePoint Portal Server's basic benefits. — Tony Redmond Managing COM+ Applications Learn how to install and manage COM+ components and applications on your servers in Win2K. — Ken Spencer Managing Service Packs and Hotfixes Keep your network up-to-date and secure without burning the midnight oil. — Randy Franklin Smith Managing Your Migration and Transition from IPv4 to IPv6 We wrap up the series by providing solutions for supporting and using both IPv4 and IPv6, and showing you a means with which to connect remote sites running IPv6 over an IPv4 link. — John Howie Mapping Practice to Theory: NT Networking and the OSI Model Using the ISO’s model to map a TCP/IP network. — Christa Anderson Messaging System Revitalizes Medical Center Walton Medical Center in Monroe, Georgia, implemented a unified messaging system that lets users access email and voicemail from a common mailbox. The results have been increased efficiency for management and key personnel. — Carol Tomerlin MetaFrame XP: A Guided Tour New features, a new management console, and new licensing make the most recent MetaFrame version a real winner. — Christa Anderson Microsoft BizTalk Microsoft combines technology, develops standards, and provides a transaction mechanism for e-commerce. Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000 Discover how the latest version of Microsoft’s SNA Server can connect your Windows systems and legacy hosts. — Tao Zhou Microsoft's Web Application Stress Tool Explore how to use Microsoft's Web Application Stress tool to tune your Web applications. — Ken Spencer Minasi Talks ... Client/Server When it comes to bedrock, ubiquitous PC networking terms, few are as ubiquitous as client/server. — Mark Minasi Minasi Talks ... Encryption Any security system relies, at least in part, on encryption. However, there are right ways and wrong ways to use encryption. — Mark Minasi Minasi Talks ... the Internet Sometimes it’s useful to get back to basics, and what’s more basic in the Microsoft networking world than TCP/IP? — Mark Minasi Mobile and Wireless Client Software Looking at the various categories of mobile and wireless client software can help you wade through the vast, expanding sea of available software. — John D. Ruley MOM Improves with Age Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 strengthens Microsoft's systems management platform by delivering a slew of enhancements, such as the new Operator Console UI, Management Packs, health modeling, and improved reporting. — Ethan Wilansky , et al. Monitoring Win2K Web Site Performance and Availability Want to know whether your Web sites are meeting expectations? Track performance and availability from a customer's perspective. — Curt Aubley , et al. More Control Through Group Policy Preferences how these extensions give you more options for deploying printers, restricting devices, managing users and groups, and help out with other common Group Policy tasks. — Jeremy Moskowitz My Favorite Tips for Windows XP SP2 Learn techniques for delaying deployment of XP SP2 if necessary, safely deploying it when you're ready, managing Windows Firewall, modifying existing GPOs to contain the new .adm templates, and more. — Jeremy Moskowitz Network Monitor Basics Understand Network Monitor's basic capabilities, learn how to use its features, and discover Network Monitor 2.0's new features. — Bill Heldman Networking: It's Not Just for Businesses Anymore! I used to be a technogeek. Now I'm mainstream. — David Chernicoff New Data Types in SQL Server 2008 New data types in SQL Server 2008 offer more precise date/time storage and solve such problems as unstructured LOB storage—DBAs will like the addition of spatial data types, new date data types, and the FILESTREAM data type. — Michael Otey NT Security: Establishing Custom Administrative Control Many analysts complain that no way exists to subdivide an NT domain into separate administrative units. Is this statement really true? — Randy Franklin Smith Online Education Online education sites offer an alternative method of studying for the MCP exams. Learn how these sites function and how to evaluate them. — L. J. Locher Oracle8 on NT Oracle has added new features to Oracle8: support for very large databases (VLDBs) and support for objects. — Mike Curtis Outlook 2007 Preview Outlook 2007 Beta 1 lets you work with RSS feeds and other new information sources, beefs up antiphishing protection, streamlines folder sharing, and provides two oft-requested improvements to the Out of Office Assistant, among other key features. — Sue Mosher Paging Peformance Several tools help monitor and increase your system's paging performance. — Kenton Gardinier Pathworks and NT — Brad Cooper Paving the Way for Microsoft Cluster Server An MSCS installation requires much administrative preparation. If you follow these guidelines, your installation will proceed without a hitch. — Ron Milione Penton’s Windows 2000 Magazine Network Names Best of Show Winners at Microsoft Tech Ed 2001 Penton Technology Media has named the winners for the Windows 2000 Magazine Best of Show Awards at Microsoft Tech Ed 2001. — Editors Per-User Auditing Tell us how you might use per-user auditing to ease administration, catch a hacker, or comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. — Editors Planning an Exchange 2000 Migration Strategy Before you move to Exchange 2000 Server, you need to start with a clean infrastructure. Find out the keys to a smooth migration. — Tony Redmond Preparing for Windows 2000 Server Terminal Services Review several important things you need to know as you get started with Terminal Services. — Christa Anderson Programmatically Change Permissions in Print Clusters If you have to change the permissions on the printers in your print cluster, you don't have to make those changes manually. PrinterPerms.cmd demonstrates how you can script permission changes. — Karen Bemowski , et al. Quality of Service QoS provides an application a bandwidth-level guarantee. The authors cover the major schools of thought on how to provide QoS on the Internet. — Barrie Sosinsky , et al. Quick Command-Line Reference One of the biggest headaches of command-line utilities is keeping track of their many different syntaxes and options. This command-line reference should help demystify some of them. — Sean Deuby Random Passwords on Demand RandPass.hta provides a simple GUI that lets you easily generate a list of random passwords. You can make the passwords as long or complex as needed. — Bill Stewart RAS Q&A Help with solving common RAS and DUN setup problems. — Mark Mosher Remote Web Administration, Part 1 Developing a co-location strategy for your Web site by using an understanding of Internet technology, a proper perspective, careful planning, diligence, and a little luck. — Ethan Wilansky , et al. Remote Web Administration, Part 2 How to access the Web server remotely for administration and how to secure the server from attacks. — Ethan Wilansky , et al. RMS vs. S/MIME for Messaging Security Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS) and S/MIME are both security protocols for protecting data, but some significant differences make each appropriate for different contexts. — Paul Robichaux Routing, NT, & RIP Learn how to use NT Server as a software-based router. — Carol A. Monaghan , et al. Running Exchange 2007 Virtually Thinking of virtualizing Exchange 2007? Here's what you need to know about storage, sizing, and virtualizing. — Keith McCall SBS 2003 Client Setup SBS 2003 eases and simplifies the ongoing task of creating new users. — David Chernicoff Scale Your Web Site Knowing how to grow your Web site can mean the difference in failure or success. Learn how to move beyond high traffic volumn with high availability and robust handling of hardware failures. — Shawn Wildermuth Scrutinizing Scriptomatic Scriptomatic is billed as a utility that writes scripts for you. Learn whether it lives up to this claim. — Christa Anderson Scrutinizing Windows Authentication Do you give much thought to how Windows authentication works? You should. Here's a look at the basics, including an examination of the related protocols. — Roger A. Grimes Securing FTP Sites Using FTP Publishing Service for IIS 7.0 The FTP Publishing Service for IIS 7.0 lets you securely transfer user credentials and data using FTPS and provides improved authentication options. — Russell Smith Securing Hyper-V Hyper-V introduces some unique security risks that you should address to prevent the host machine and guest OSs from being compromised. — Mark Burnett Server Storage Options To get the best storage for your needs, you should consider hard disk drive technology as well as storage design. Learn about high availability, cost, and other differences between locally attached storage, NAS, JBOD, and SAN. — Alan Sugano Services for UNIX 3.5's Flair for Interoperability The most recent version of Microsoft's SFU gives Windows users a toolkit of applications with which to create a true UNIX environment that blends impressively with the Windows OS. — Jeff Fellinge Setting Up VPN Authentication Via RADIUS Learn how to add RADIUS authentication to your firewall without breaking or altering the current VPN setup. — Eric B. Rux Small Business Case Study Roundup Take a look at this article to help decide whether an SBS solution is right for your organization. — Joshua Feinberg Souping it Up Get the best performance from your systems and applications. — John Enck State of Computer Telephony 97: Beyond the Expo The Computer Telephony business is dead serious in its quest to offer products and services that feature the best of both worlds from which it was born: the phone and computer industries. — Chris Bajorek , et al. Storage UPDATE Runs Storage Survey Here's a chance to participate in a survey about storage trends. — Barrie Sosinsky Submit a Caption for CTRL + ALT + DEL — Various Authors Submit a Caption for CTRL + ALT + DEL: Lame — Various Authors Submit a Caption for CTRL + ALT + DEL: Panic — Various Authors Submit a Caption for CTRL + ALT + DEL: Warning has increased — Various Authors Supplement: Jasmine and Object Database Resources — Karen Watterson Suppressing Spam As the threat of virus infection increases, so does the importance of protecting your environment from spam. New Exchange 2003 features help you combat the surge of spam, but if you're not ready for a migration, you might try third-party tools. — Tony Redmond Take our spyware Instant Poll What’s your favorite spyware-fighting tool? — Joe Kinsella Taking the Byte out of Windows NT Compression Learn whether users can reliably deploy the file compression utility that ships with NT 3.51 and NT 4.0 with little or no performance cost. — Jack Funk Tell Us What's Hot at Tech Ed 2003 — Various Authors Tell Us Your Root Kit Horror Stories Share your root kit horror stories in the Reader Comments area of this article. — Editors Test Your IT Trivia Knowledge! — Various Authors Test Your Knowledge — Michael Otey Test Your Knowledge How much did you learn about SQL Server 2000 from reading this article? Take our almost-painless test! — Michael Otey The Accidental Hacker Exploits IIS Bugs Steps to help protect Internet Information Servers (IIS) 3.0 and4.0 from bugs. — Andrey Kruchkov The Case for Windows 98 Win98 is an exceptional operating system (OS), with features that appeal to the most hardcore NT administrator. — Jonathan Chau The Evolution of 32-Bit Windows Viruses In the battle to secure your systems against viruses, arm yourself by knowing where viruses originate, what forms they can take, and how they can damage your systems. — Peter Szor , et al. The Red Badge of Clearance Don't spend more protecting something than it will cost you if security is compromised. — Sydney Bush The Security Event Log Ask Randy Franklin Smith about Microsoft's cryptic Security Event Log entries. — Randy Franklin Smith The Straight Story on Virtual Server Got questions about Microsoft Virtual Server 2005? Ask Michael Otey in a Virtual Server 2005 chat on May 25, 2005, 12 p.m. EDT. — Michael Otey The View from WinHEC Jason Bovberg reports on products he liked at WinHEC this week, and Paul Thurrott gives his take on the conference. — Editors  Time to Round Up Those Scripts If you have scripts scattered all over the place on your computer, try ScriptRoundUp.vbs. It locates scripts meeting your criteria, then copies them to a central location so you can back them up and easily find them in the future. — Jim Turner Tips for Tightening User Account Security User authentication is the foundation of the Windows security mechanism. Take these simple steps to tighten your user accounts. — Mark Burnett Top 5 Extensions for OpsMgr These five extensions let you do more with Systems Center Operations Manager 2007, including troubleshooting, alerting, and mapping systems in your environment. — Cameron Fuller Topaz Is a Gem Discover the new features and improvements that the new version of Microsoft Systems Management Server will offer. — Marshall Copeland Tracking with Network Monitor 2.0 Use Network Monitor to capture and record data and to analyze traffic patterns in your Win2K network. — L. J. Locher Type Accelerators: A Useful But Undocumented Feature in PowerShell 1.0 If you never heard of PowerShell's [wmi], [wmiclass], and [wmisearcher] type accelerators, you're not alone. Find out what they are and why should you care about them. — Karen Bemowski Use Google Apps to Connect to Microsoft Office Use Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar in tandem with Microsoft Word and Outlook to create collaborative workspaces and extend document, spreadsheet, and calendaring to the Web. — Will Kelly Use IPsec to Encrypt Data IPsec's ability to encrypt data can help strengthen your defense-in-depth strategy. This primer on IPsec starts with the basic terminology and setup, then walks you through how to configure IPsec in a scenario involving two servers on a network. — Russell Smith Users In Workgroups Learn how to duplicate users on multiple computers, create users on remote computers, and control and troubleshoot logons. — Kathy Ivens Using Microsoft's x86 Kernel Debugger Troubleshooting your crashed NT systems — Robert Kozlowski Using Windows Security with IIS and SQL Server 2000 Discover how you can configure a Web application that accesses SQL Server 2000 to use a Windows username and password for authentication. — Ken Spencer We want to know what gaps you stumbled across. — Ethan Wilansky Welcome to Windows IT Pro, the hub of the IT community! By visiting our site, you’ve joined a community of more than 2.3+ million IT Pros who depend on our expert authors provide the highest quality technical content and upfront answers to the problems you face every day. Read on to find out what's new... — Publisher What are your Windows Server 2003 R2 plans? — John Savill What Do the Windows Server Developers Have to Say? Learn more about the development of Windows Server products. Read the Windows Server Division Weblog. — Editors What's New and What's Improved in Windows .NET Server? .NET's key infrastructure improvements can present compelling business reasons to consider the new platform. — Sean Deuby What's New in Windows .NET Server's Terminal Services? Learn about what's new in Windows .NET's Terminal Services implementation, with a focus on server features and client integration. — Sean Deuby Win2K and NT 4.0 Coexistence, Round 2 Are you planning a migration to Win2K? Do you know all the options? Learn how to spot differences in the Win2K and NT platforms so that you can make your transition easy. — Paula Sharick Win2K Professional Domain-Controller Selection Understanding Win2K Professional's domain-controller selection process and how it differs from NT 4.0's process can help you avoid or fix client logon problems. — Sean Deuby Windows 2000 EFS Keep your data confidential. — Zubair Alexander Windows 2000 EFS Zubair Alexander looks at Windows 2000's Encrypting File System (EFS), which provides file encryption capabilities on an NTFS volume. — Zubair Alexander Windows 2000 Storage Improvements Enhancements in the long-awaited Win2K. — Steve Thomas Windows 2000 Total Cost of Ownership Learn what the experts think about the true costs associated with Windows 2000 (Win2K). — Barrie Sosinsky , et al. Windows 2000 Update Windows 2000 boasts impressive hardware support, easy installation, and stability. — Jonathan Chau Windows 7 Editions Windows 7 has a simpler set of editions than Windows Vista. Here's the scoop on the editions and what they include. — Michael Otey Windows NT Backup & Recovery Windows NT Backup & Recovery is aimed at beginning and intermediate-level Windows NT administrators. Useful topics for all levels of systems administrators include the discussion on new bus technologies and computer viruses. — Mark T. Edmead Windows Server 2003 Certificate Services Windows Server 2003 Certificate Services contains new features and improved security. Three key new features are Version 2 certificate templates, key archival and recovery, and delta Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs). — John Howie Windows Server 2008 Failover Clustering Server 2008 failover clustering provides increased hardware support, a single quorum model that can operate in one of four modes, and a simplified cluster creation process. — John Savill Wireless Exchange Email with the RIM Blackberry For mobile workers always on the run who need to stay in constant contact with their email, only one product, the RIM Blackberry, makes sense. — Gail Fitzmaurice XP SP2 on the Go The new Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 adds XP SP2's security enhancements and Input Panel improvements to Tablet PCs. — John D. Ruley Y2K and NT Regardless of which version of NT you use, you can take measures to protect your system from the Y2K problem. — Edmund X. DeJesus You've Been Hacked Web Chat Read the transcript of the chat with Windows IT pro Alan Sugano about his hacking discovery and recovery tips. — Alan Sugano [Reader Challenge] April 2001 Reader Challenge Answer this month's Reader Challenge for fun, prizes, and recognition. — Kathy Ivens April 2002 Reader Challenge Winners and answer this month's challenge about the easiest way to automate changing NIC settings and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens April 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens April 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's challenge and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens April 2007 Reader Challenge and March Reader Challenge Winners Vista UPDATE newsletter's Reader Challenge is a great way to keep your IT department on its toes, training-wise, with questions about Windows OSs, desktop, and systems management situations. — Kathy Ivens April Reader Challenge Windows Client Update's monthly Reader Challenge stimulates IT professionals' minds. April's question tests your knowledge of POLP. — Kathy Ivens August 2001 Reader Challenge Define these computer jargon terms and win a prize for this month's Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens August 2002 Reader Challenge Be careful to name printer shares so that clients running any version of Windows can find them. — Kathy Ivens August 2003 Reader Challenge Kathy Ivens's latest challenge tests your knowledge of NTFS permissions. — Kathy Ivens August 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens August 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens August 2007 Reader Challenge and July Reader Challenge Winners Often used as a training tool, or a way to establish who's buying lunch that day, the Reader Challenge will test your IT knowledge. Today, it's ReadyBoost in Vista. — Kathy Ivens August 2008 Reader Challenge and July Reader Challenge Winners Whether you're new to Windows Vista or you've been using it for some time, there are some things that take getting used to after using Windows XP for a long time. Didja notice the following things? — Kathy Ivens August Reader Challenge and July Reader Challenge Winners Solve the Reader Challenge and you could win a prize. — Kathy Ivens Computer Crashes — Kathy Ivens December 2001 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Reader Challenge and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens December 2003 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens December 2004 Reader Challenge Test your user support skills with these networking questions. — Kathy Ivens December 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens December 2006 Reader Challenge and November Winners A great training tool for IT departments, Kathy Ivens's Reader Challenge will sharpen your skills and keep you on your toes. — Kathy Ivens December 2007 Reader Challenge and November Reader Challenge Winners How much do you know about router-provided DHCP services? Test yourself (and your IT colleagues) against our expert with the perennially popular Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens February 2001 Reader Challenge Winners Read the February Reader Challenge and find out the winners and the correct solution. — Kathy Ivens February 2002 Reader Challenge Solve this month's question about laptop computers and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens February 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens February 2005 Reader Challenge Test your Group Policy skills by answering these questions by February 16, 2005--you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens February 2006 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! Email your solution (don't use an attachment) to challenge@windowsitpro.com by Feb. 15, 2006. — Kathy Ivens February 2007 Reader Challenge and January Reader Challenge Winners How much do you know about the Ctrl+Alt+Del secure attention sequence? Reader Challenge is a great training tool, for personal or departmental use. — Kathy Ivens February 2008 Reader Challenge and January Reader Challenge Winners What do you know about System Restore? Test yourself and your department against our Reader Challenge. You might even win a prize. — Kathy Ivens January 2002 Reader Challenge Solve this month's problem and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens January 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens January 2005 Reader Challenge Test your user support skills by answering these computer lag time questions. — Kathy Ivens January 2006 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens January 2007 Reader Challenge and December 2006 Reader Challenge Winner Test your skills against the formidable Kathy Ivens as she dishes up yet another Reader Challenge. You might win a prize (or at least bragging rights). IT managers take note: this is a fun, easy way to update your department's skills. — Kathy Ivens July 2001 Reader Challenge Answer these questions about Internet Explorer settings and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens July 2002 Reader Challenge Test Your Knowledge About Renaming Groups of Files — Kathy Ivens July 2003 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens July 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens July 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens July 2006 Reader Challenge and June 2006 Reader Challenge Winners Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! I choose winners at random from the pool of correct entries. I’m a sucker for humor and originality, and a cleverly written correct answer gets an extra chance. — Kathy Ivens July 2007 Reader Challenge and June Reader Challenge Winners Coffee breaks and meeting openers will never be the same after you break out the Reader Challenge questions and see who can answer them--they're great for training too. — Kathy Ivens July 2008 Reader Challenge and June Reader Challenge Winners Trivia for IT people! Can you solve this month's Reader Challenge involving Easter eggs? — Kathy Ivens June 2001 Reader Challenge Solve this month's printing problem and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens June 2002 Reader Challenge Winners and answer to June Reader Challenge about cookies. — Kathy Ivens June 2003 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens June 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens June 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens June 2006 Reader Challenge and May 2006 Reader Challenge Winners Kathy Ivens presents your June Reader Challenge, as well as the winners of the May Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens June 2007 Reader Challenge and May Reader Challenge Winners Reader Challenge trivia questions can help you keep your IT department on its toes! This month--how much do you know about the logon process? — Kathy Ivens June 2008 Reader Challenge An ad hoc network can be easier to work with than sneaker net and still maintains security. What do you know about ad hoc networks? — Kathy Ivens June 2009 Reader Challenge You can make folder sharing in Vista behave as it does in XP. — Kathy Ivens March 2001 Reader Challenge Try to answer this month's Reader Challenge for fun and prizes. — Kathy Ivens March 2002 Reader Challenge Answer this month's challenge about setting local policies and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens March 2003 Reader Challenge Test your knowledge about administering Win2K networks. — Kathy Ivens March 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens March 2005 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens March 2007 Reader Challenge and February Reader Challenge Winners Reader Challenge makes a great IT training tool. This month, Kathy Ivens asks, "How much do you know about the subst command?" — Kathy Ivens May 2001 Reader Challenge Help Harriet at the Help desk answer these user compaints and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens May 2002 Reader Challenge Do you know how to set your passsword-protected screen savers to appear after three minutes of idle time? — Kathy Ivens May 2002 Reader Challenge The winners and the answer to this month's question about the screen saver. — Kathy Ivens May 2003 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens May 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens May 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's challenge and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens May 2006 Reader Challenge Kathy Ivens presents the WinClient Update monthly reader challenge. This one is on the Run As feature in Windows. — Kathy Ivens May 2007 Reader Challenge and April Reader Challenge Winners Always a great IT training tool, Reader Challenge continues to test and trump the best. May 2007's is about Group Policy--oh yeah! — Kathy Ivens May 2009 Reader Challenge For training or just stumping your coworkers, Reader Challenge always satisfies--this month, a command-line challenge in Vista. — Kathy Ivens November 2001 Reader Challenge Solve the Novemeber Reader Challenge and win a prize. — Kathy Ivens November 2003 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens November 2004 Reader Challenge Test your user-support skills with these questions about the Add/Remove Programs applet. — Kathy Ivens November 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens November 2006 Reader Challenge and October Winners Great for IT department community building and training, these Reader Challenge questions test your mettle against a top network researcher and author. — Kathy Ivens November 2007 Reader Challenge and October Reader Challenge Winners Got the crud? Maybe you've been hanging around developers too long. Confused? Check out the perennial favorite for stumping colleagues, the Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens October 2001 Reader Challenge Solve this month's puzzle for fun and prizes. — Kathy Ivens October 2003 Reader Challenge This month's challenge is about copying configured and saved settings to multiple computers in XP and Win2K. — Kathy Ivens October 2004 Reader Challenge Test your knowledge about basic search-engine operations. — Kathy Ivens October 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens October 2007 Reader Challenge and September Reader Challenge Winners What do you know about this problem involving workgroup names and Vista computers? Reader Challenge questions are great for training and keeping the new kids (or the old hands!) humble. — Kathy Ivens October Reader Challenge and September Reader Challenge Winners Think you have what it takes to solve this month's Reader Challenge? Follow the directions in the article--October's challenge deals with the question of configuring desktop settings across a department. — Kathy Ivens October Reader Challenge Solutions Winners and solution revealed in the October Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge How do you create a startup menu in XP and Win2K with Safe Mode and Recovery Console options? — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge Take time out to have some fun with this month's Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge April 2008 and Reader Challenge Winners for March 2008 How much do you know about the built-in Administrator account in Vista? — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge February 2009 Solve this month's challenge about a batch file logon script, and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for April 2009 and Winners for February 2009 When your user asks "Where is this file stored? How do I delete it?" you'll know the answer, but better yet, you'll have the prize to prove it. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for December 2008 and November Winner An IT consultant's customer asked if he could change the default login process to eliminate the Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence. The catch was, it was in Vista. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for January 2008 and December 2007 Reader Challenge Winners How much do you know (or remember) about IRQs? Oldtimers should know the answers to this Reader Challenge, but maybe you young'uns will surprise us with the right answers too, eh? — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for January 2009 and Winners of December's Challenge Troubleshooting commands Ping and Netview can save your bacon. Also, a career tip-ever thought about getting into small business IT consulting? — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for March 2008 and Winners for February 2008 Challenge Did System Restore stump you last month? Try this month's Vista challenge version! — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for May 2008 and April Reader Challenge Winners Command-line freaks and newbies, take note: Have we got a quiz for you! — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for November 2008 and October Reader Challenge Winners This month's challenge is inspired by an email message: "I'd like to display user names with a space between the first and last name on our Welcome screens (just because I like the slick look of it)." Do you know how to do this? — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for October 2008 and September Reader Challenge Winners This month's challenge is inspired by several e-mail queries from users. All of them asked the same question, in almost the same words. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge for September 2008 and August Reader Challenge Winner Consulting for a small or midsized business? Think you know all about peer-to-peer networks? Test your know-how here and now, with this month's Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens Reader Challenge: February 2006 winners and March 2006 Reader Challenge Here are the March 2006 Reader Challenge puzzle and the winners of the February 2006 Reader Challenge. — Kathy Ivens September 2001 Reader Challenge Answer this month's Reader Challenge and you might win a prize. — Kathy Ivens September 2003 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens September 2004 Reader Challenge — Kathy Ivens September 2005 Reader Challenge Solve this month's Windows Client challenge, and you might win a prize! — Kathy Ivens , et al. September 2007 Reader Challenge and August Reader Challenge Winner Keep up with all the new technology. One fun way to train is with the Reader Challenge--this month, we challenge you on security settings and folders. — Kathy Ivens September Reader Challenge Kathy Ivens poses a challenge about Windows XP computers, with prizes for winners! Hurry and email the answer to the email address in her challenge. — Kathy Ivens Understanding TCP/IP Do you have a basic understanding of TCP/IP? — Kathy Ivens Using My Network Places Winners and answers to the two questions about using My Network Places in Windows XP. — Kathy Ivens Using the Alternate Configuration Feature — Kathy Ivens [Reader to Reader] .adm Files and the Headaches They Can Cause See what happens when a company uses Systems Policy Editor and remote administrators make changes to the Windows NT config.pol file using different .adm files than the ones set up at the home office. — Readers Adding a Processor Without Reinstalling Windows NT One reader explains how he added a second processor to his server without reinstalling Windows NT. — Readers Administering a Domain Without Logging On as Administrator See how one reader uses an NT Resource Kit utility to quickly log on and off with administrator privileges. — Readers As Win64 Nears, Are 16-Bit and 32-Bit Applications Out? We all know that Intel is working on 64-bit processors, Alpha processors already work with 64-bit applications, and the next generation of applications will work with Windows 64. But what will happen to all the 16-bit and 32-bit applications? — Readers Avoid Ugly Computer Inventory Reports—Save Your Script's Output in Microsoft Word Here's a VBScript script that retrieves a computer's memory and process information, then writes it to a nicely formatted Microsoft Word report. The report is customizable—you can even include an image, such as a company logo, on the report’s title page. — Readers Battling Microsoft over Desktop Icons Battling Microsoft over a support call to resolve a bug in Service Pack 4 (SP4) and SP5 that automatically rearranges your desktop icons proves to be a fruitless venture. — Readers Browsing the LAN or Subnet in Windows NT Have you ever wanted to let your users browse the LAN or subnet, but not the entire network or WAN? One reader shows you one way to make this happen. — Readers Corrupted boot.ini file Might be the Culprit When You Can't Find an Existing Windows Installation A corrupted boot.ini file can bring your effort to fix an existing Windows installation to a screeching stop. Here's how to repair a boot.ini file so that it can correctly locate existing installations. — Oguzhan Oguz Customize the Size of Taskbar-Button Groups In Windows Vista and Windows XP, taskbar buttons from the same application are grouped. However, you have no control over when grouping starts or ends. Here's how you can gain control and have the taskbar buttons group when you want them to. — Alex K. Angelopoulos Demoting a PDC to a BDC One reader shares one method for demoting a PDC to a BDC. — Readers Distributing Files for Increased Fault Tolerance You're rolling out 50 new desktop PCs, each with a 4GB hard disk. After installing OSs and a suite of applications, you realize that you have more than 3GB of unused disk space on each PC. What can you do? — Readers DOS 8.3 File Names Changing with Restore See what happens when you try to restore a sequence of 8.3 filenames from a tape backup. The results might surprise you. — Readers Dual Booting Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98 One reader shares his technique for dual booting Windows 98 from a FAT32 primary or active partition and NT from an NTFS extended partition or a separate hard disk. — Readers Exchange Server 5.5 SP2 MTA Doesn’t Use the Logical Path One reader explains what happens when his company upgrades to Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 2 and the MTA begins to route messages from all over the organization to Microsoft Mail. — Readers Exchange Server 5.5 Testing Concerns One reader shares his concerns about Microsoft's adaptive testing after taking the Exchange Server 5.5 MCSE exam. — Readers How to Stop Users From Installing Google Chrome Unlike most applications, Google Chrome is designed to install in areas that standard users can write to, so they can install this new browser without Admin rights. Here are the steps you can take to block Google Chrome's installation. — Readers Installing PPTP on a Member Server Reader David Scott explains how you can easily put PPTP on a member server and have it pass-through authenticate to a domain like a RAS member server. — Readers Intranets: To Browse or Not to Browse—That is the Question One reader argues that the Web-browser interface is not always the best choice for intranets. — Readers Judge NT not Microsoft One reader explains why you should judge the software you use based on its qualities, including usability, scalability, and robustness, and not its manufacturer. — Readers Keep Track of and Plan Your Vacation Time with the Time-Off Planner As you enter the vacation time you're taking off, this HTML Application (HTA) automatically deducts those hours from your vacation-hours balance. It even color-codes the weeks you're on-call so that you can avoid scheduling time off during those weeks. — Jim Turner Problem with Services for Macintosh If you copy or move files to a Macintosh volume on a Windows NT server, your Mac clients might not be able to see these files. Learn how one reader got around this problem. — Readers Problems Restoring An Exchange Server IS After Using NTBackup One reader shares his experience when a restored Exchange Server Information Store (IS) won't start after a recent backup. — Readers Recovering a Volume Set After a Drive Crashes When one drive in an NTFS four-drive volume set crashes, this reader pulls out all the stops to recover his data. — Readers Recurring RunOnce Entries One reader explains the difference between the Run and RunOnce sections in the Windows NT Registry. — Readers Registry Tweak Restores Connection to a Remote Windows 2008 Server Without warning, a systems administrator's connection to a remote Windows Server 2008 machine stopped working. Here's how he found and fixed the problem. — Apostolos Fotakelis Script Trek The Star Trek crew discovers how bad assumptions about data types can cause errors in VBScript and PowerShell code. — Readers Securing Exchange Server Here are some methods for ensuring secure client/server or server/server communication over Internet connections using Exchange Server. — Readers Simple Network Installations A reader suggests a method he used to install a large base of software in one shot on several computers. As a poor man's SMS, be aware that this approach might not be right for all readers. — Readers Solving the Out of Office Assistant Mystery What happens when the Outlook Out of Office autoreply crashes into an oncoming fax? See how one IT administrator deals with the resulting carnage. — Readers Some Issues About NT Server Backups Finding the right backup solution for your enterprise network can be a daunting task. Learn how one user tried one approach and ended up with another. — Readers Speeding Printer Times with NT 4.0 Server and SP3 Learn how one reader speeds the performance of his network printers running Windows NT Server 4.0 with Service Pack 3 (SP3). — Readers Storing NT Images for Users One reader shares his solution for backing up users' desktop systems and data partitions using two third-party products. — Readers Thank You Microsoft One reader shares his experience with installing a copy of Linux and decides that Microsoft's solutions are better for him. — Readers The Circular Circus If you've ever had Exchange Server crash, you know how painful losing your most recent transactions can be. Learn how one user disables circular logging to ensure he can recover his data. — Readers The Missing Computers Reader Will Dalton explains what to do when you create a new subnet of your domain and find that the new nodes don't appear in Network Neighborhood. — Readers The Strain of Gateway Services for NetWare If you've ever run Windows NT's Gateway Services for NetWare (GSNW), you might have wondered whether this service was putting a strain on your server. One reader investigates. — Readers Trouble Using NetMeeting with Dial-Up Users Learn how one user configures NetMeeting to work in his enterprise environment, but battles with connectivity problems with his remote dial-up users. — Readers Unattended Sound Card Installation For readers who are struggling with unattended sound card installation in Windows NT 4.0, a reader offers one method you can try. — Readers Use 2 Tools to Assign Printers in Just 2 Steps This printer deployment solution assigns available printer connections to a computer based on the computer's OU and not on who logs on to that computer. It also removes old network printer connections and assigns each user a default printer connection. — Readers Use of SYSDIFF Images for Unattended Sound Card Installation One reader explains how you can use SYSDIFF to install sound cards as part of your unattended installations. — Readers Use PowerShell to Manage Fine-Grained Password Policies in Windows Server 2008 Using ADSI Edit to administer Password Settings objects (PSOs) is cumbersome and time-consuming. To reduce the amount of time it takes, you can use PowerShell and some free AD cmdlets. — Readers What's the Difference? Reader Marty Scher explains how to use Sysdiff to generate a list of all the system changes you make during a software or an ISP configuration install. — Readers Windows NT 4.0 and SQL Server 6.5 Bug Discover how one user worked with Microsoft support staff to find a suitable workaround to a problem that involved setting SNMP traps with Windows NT, SQL Server 6.5, and HP OpenView. — Readers Windows NT Cloning Troubleshooting and repairing student installations in one user's training lab was taking up all his time. Here's the solution he devised. — Readers Winning with Enterprise Software: Doing Your Part Why does enterprise software have such a black eye with customers? Why are the statistics on costs, implementation times, and success rates so abhorrent? There are several reasons, and it helps to understand each accomplice's motivations and pressures. — Readers Workarounds One reader questions vendor's propensity for providing "workarounds." — Readers [Editorial] Best of TechEd 2009 Award Winners The Best of TechEd Awards recognize the most innovative products and services offered by Microsoft partners that exhibited at TechEd 2009, held in June 2009 at the Los Angeles Convention center. Here are our winners! — Editors Buy Now, Regret it Later? Find out about the perils of post-sale terms disclosure in the software industry and what you can do to halt a proposed new licensing law. — Mark Minasi BYOC: Bring Your Own Computer Citrix predicts that soon, employees will use company-administered virtual desktops on their own computers. This idea presents both advantages and problems for IT. — Zac Wiggy I Love Multi-touch, But I'm Not Touching the Screen Drivers for multi-touch screens in Windows 7 were recently made available, but I want multi-touch trackpads instead. — Zac Wiggy Skip Windows Vista and Keep Skipping? Reports show the demand for computers is slowing, or even decreasing. The economy is partly to blame, but the lack of compelling reasons to upgrade begs the question—Why upgrade at all, any time soon? — Zac Wiggy Starter Edition? Sounds Great, Just Make it Free Some are predicting Windows 7 Starter Edition could cause problems, but I'd like to see it released even more widely, if the price is right. — Zac Wiggy The Death of Alpha on NT Alpha on Windows NT is dead. As far as NT goes, it’s an Intel world. — Mark Smith Trouble Managing Heterogeneous Environments? Let TechX World Help! Have you faced the challenge of optimizing complex heterogeneous multi-platform environments? TechX World provides tools and industry experts to help you manage multi-platform environments. — Various Authors [Outlook VBA on Demand] Converting Yearly Appointments to Tasks A script turns your Outlook annual appointment items into task items. — Sue Mosher Finding Redemption Use the Redemption programming library to rid yourself of Outlook 2002's and Outlook Email Security Update's security warnings. — Sue Mosher Using Collaboration Data Objects Discover how CDO, a programming interface that you can use with Outlook, lets you find and display an Exchange email sender's SMTP address. — Sue Mosher Working with Attachments Learn how to add, save, and open attachments to Outlook messages and other items. — Sue Mosher [ForefroNT] Embedded Windows and the Internet Microsoft is working step-by-step to position its embedded OSs in the Internet infrastructure market. — David Chernicoff The Future of Mobile Connectivity The mobile connectivity market has many contenders and few obvious successes. Where the future lies is far from clear. — David Chernicoff [Product Reviews] 1Disk 1.0.23 Keep track of your removable media. — Marty Scher 3570 Magstar MP Tape Subsystem The 3570 Magstar uses a new tape technology called Fast Access Linear Tape, which provides faster access to data than competing technologies provide. — Michael P. Deignan Alpha's Floating Point Sinks In our recent reviews of Alpha NT systems, we tested several NT workstations with the Digital 21164PC processor using AIM Technology's Workstation Benchmark for Windows NT. — Brian Gallagher Analyzing Your Web Site Traffic Check out this comparative review of three different Web analysis packages that help you monitor traffic to your Web site. AntiSniff Beta 2 A review of L0pht Heavy Industries' AntiSniff Beta 2, a product that can detect packet sniffers listening on a Windows NT network. — Mark Joseph Edwards askSam Web Publisher AskSam Web Publisher is an add-on to askSam free-form database manager. It easily and efficiently maintains and publish databases on your Web site. The Web Publisher component extends this database to the Web so colleagues or customers can access data. — Michael P. Deignan AuthAnvil Scorpion Software's easy-to-use two-factor authentication solution doesn't break the bank. — Michael Dragone AutoShutdown 3.10B Does this task-automation utility live up to its claims? — Tom Iwanski AutoSys AutoSys 3.4 from PLATINUM Technology is a full job scheduling and management system for NT systems. — Michael P. Deignan Big/IP2 Load balance your TCP/IP traffic with F5 Labs' Server Array Controller — Michael P. Deignan Bouncer 1.08 Log off inactive users automatically. — Michael P. Deignan BW2000 A new approach to sound. — Brian Gallagher CD-Accelerator CD-Accelerator creates a mirror image of a CD-ROM on a hard disk and shares the mirrored image as if it were a regular network share on the system. The performance is up to 10 times faster than the performance from a CD-ROM drive. — Michael P. Deignan CleanSweep Deluxe — Jonathan Cragle CodeWallet Pro 2005 For users who carry sensitive personal or business information, CodeWallet Pro 2005 provides an effective means to secure that data from thieves. — John Howie Compaq Batch Scheduler 2.0 Compaq Batch Scheduler 2.0 is an enterprise-level scheduling system that lets you develop and deploy batch jobs. An administrative GUI lets you schedule and modify jobs using drag-and-drop functionality and is a client/server application. — Michael P. Deignan CONNECT:Manage Deliver software and information via your intranet. — Joseph D. Gradecki Connected Online Backup Connected Online Backup is a program that backs up your data over the Internet or a private communication circuit. The program backs up your laptop or desktop PC on a regular basis and stores your data offsite for later recall. — Michael P. Deignan CoSession Remote 32 8.1 CoSession brings remote management and more to your desktop. — Michael P. Deignan CyberSnoop 3.0 Cyber Snoop, an Internet monitoring and blocking utility, lets you restrict access to Internet resources in five major areas: the Web, USENET News, FTP, email, and Chat. — Michael P. Deignan Diskeeper 3.0 — Carlos Bernal doc-U-meant Print custom forms on your inhouse printer. — Michael P. Deignan Drive Image 1.0 Drive Image 1.0, from PowerQuest, is a disk cloning system that lets you create a duplicate of a hard disk onto another hard disk with minimal effort. — Michael P. Deignan E-Trail Digital Archive E-Trail Digital Archive does a good job of archiving electronic communications data but might be a challenge for some companies to introduce. — Michael Cassens Ecryption Plus for Hard Disks 2.01 128-bit blowfish guards your hard disks. — Mark Joseph Edwards Emailrobot GFI Fax & Voice's Emailrobot is two products in one: an email management system and an email automation system. — Michael P. Deignan Enterprise Security Reporter 1.75 Find out about software that gathers, stores, and analyzes your network's security information. — Rodney Landrum ERD Commander 1.0 Don't reinstall, repair. — Michael P. Deignan ERD Commander Pro 1.06 A tool from Winternals Software that lets you boot to an NT command line from a floppy disk. — Michael Norian Event Archiver Professional 2.0 Event Archiver automatically saves files to a formatted text file that you can open in your favorite spreadsheet or database program. The product features flexible scheduling, the ability to run as a service, and archived event files. — Marty Scher FastStats 2.69 Perform effective log analysis at a reasonable price. — Larry J. Seltzer FaxPress 5.0 Use client/server technology to send faxes with Castelle's FaxPress 5.0, an enterprise-level fax server solution that frees your NT server resources and installs easily. — Michael P. Deignan Fulcrum Knowledge Network Fulcrum Knowledge Network is a collection of software programs that you can configure to collect and catalog information in such a way that your users can easily search for the answers they need. — Michael P. Deignan GPExpert Troubleshooting Pak 1.0 GPExpert provides four tools that can reduce the time you spend troubleshooting Group Policy problems. — John Green HP ProLiant DL585 The system’s 4-way Opteron configuration makes it blindingly fast, and with support for as much as 64GB of RAM, it offers enterprise-class scalability in a rugged, well-designed package. — Michael Otey ImageCast ImageCast makes disk imaging easy. — Jonathan Chau Infinite InterChange Infinite InterChange, from Infinite Technologies, is a complete remote-access electronic mail solution that can bring order to your company's email systems. — Michael P. Deignan InstallWatch 1.2 Professional Keep track of system changes when installing new software. — Michael P. Deignan Instant CD Server End the need for CD-ROM swapping. Instant CD Server is a network-enabled, Plug and Play (PnP) CD-ROM tower that lets you share CD-ROMs over your network. — Michael P. Deignan Internet Message Center Internet Message Center (IMC), from Mustang Software, is an intelligent email management solution. The product processes Internet email and places the email into its tracking system. The software generates an immediate acknowledgment. — Michael P. Deignan Iomega ZipPlus The plus in ZipPlus is for connectivity, not speed. — Jonathan Chau Ipen If it looks like a pen and moves like a pen, it must be a mouse. — John Enck iShare Artisoft's i.SHARE 3.0 is an Internet-sharing tool that lets multiple users simultaneously access the Web through one dial-up connection to the Internet. — Michael P. Deignan MacDrive 98 2.1.2 MacDrive 98 makes a PC disk drive multilingual. — William Wong Magnifi Enterprise Server 2.0 Magnifi Enterprise Server 2.0 is a powerful tool that lets you index the contents of Web sites and your local intranet. — Michael P. Deignan ManageSoft Refresh Highly recommended for large organizations with ongoing computer replacement projects — John Green MASSter 2000 Duplicate disk drives with ICS's portable duplication system. — Michael P. Deignan MPEG Encoding and Decoding Solutions Products that take the mystery out of MPEG. — Brian Gallagher Norton Ghost 6.0 Enterprise Edition Ghost's new enterprise features don't meet expectations. — Tom Iwanski Norton Uninstall Deluxe — Jonathan Chau NotePager32 NotePager 32 is an alphanumeric pager messaging program. Written in Microsoft Visual Basic (VB), the software uses the industry-standard Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol (TAP) to upload alphanumeric messages to your paging company. — Michael P. Deignan O&O Defrag 10 Professional Edition Review How does O&O Software's Defrag 10 Professional Edition fare against other defrag products? Read our review to find out. — Jeff James O&O Defrag 10 Professional Edition Review This disk-defragmentation tool offers five defragmentation methods to help you organize and optimize your hard disks. — Jeff James pcANYWHERE32 8.0 With pcANYWHERE32 8.0, from Symantec, you can connect to your office PC from a remote site, remotely control your PC via a modem or the Internet, and quickly transfer and synchronize files between computers. — Tom Stearns Pervasive.SQL How does Pervasive.SQL stack up as a SQL-based database server? — Michael P. Deignan Picture Taker Move files between systems with this snapshot utility. — Michael P. Deignan Point B Net-Accelerator 1.0 Traveling Software's Point B Remote Net-Accelerator 1.0 is a client/server solution that speeds up remote access to an office network but doesn't require users to change the way they work. — S. Alan Mitchell PolyStation 800K7 An inexpensive and fast workstation. — Mark Weitz PowerSync 4.5 Server Check out this file and directory replication tool that can help you easily distribute files to your users, regardless of whether you're using one OS or working in a heterogeneous environment. — Michael P. Deignan PowrPlay Server Web Edition With this PowerPlay add-on, you can publish PowerCubes on the Web. — Michael P. Deignan Quick View Plus — Jonathan Chau Reflection for the Web 4.0 WRQ's Reflection for the Web provides capable and secure access to both IBM and UNIX hosts via thin Web client running nothing more than a browser. — Michael Otey Reflection NetApps 1.0 WRQ's trim TCP/IP suite rounds out NT networking nicely. — John Enck Remote Access Manager Manage your RAS users. — Michael P. Deignan RemoteWare Express Effectively distribute software over unreliable network links. — Michael P. Deignan Review: OffiSync Whether you love Google Docs and are looking for added functionality or hate Google Docs and want to avoid its use, OffiSync provides a solution. — Brian Reinholz Review: Palm Treo 800w The Treo 800w is packed with all the features a business smartphone needs. With GPS, Wi-Fi, and Microsoft Exchange support added to the product line, the 800w is a very competent device. — Brian Reinholz Review: PC Tune-Up 2.0 Inevitably, your PCs at home and at work are going to start becoming less efficient and less speedy. Here's one way to reduce the clutter. — Jason Bovberg Review: pmPoint 7.0 Looking for a robust workflow management and reporting solution built within the familiar SharePoint framework? If so, pmPoint is perfect for you. — Brian Reinholz Review: SQL Server 2008 IntelliSense and T-SQL debugging, Hot Add CPUs, data compression, new DATE, TIME and spatial data types and a host of other new features make SQL Server 2008 a must-have upgrade for Enterprise and SQL Server 2000 users. — Michael Otey Sawmill Pro 3.0 Keep track of Web hits with Flowerfire's Sawmill Pro 3.0. — Jonathan Chau SCSI Express SCSI Express, from Micro Design International, helps you manage storage resources. — Michael P. Deignan SessonWall-3 Software to help you take control of your network. — Jim Cole SFProtect 2.0 Agent-based system security scanner. — Mark Joseph Edwards SonicWALL Plus DMZ Not long ago, installing a firewall was a long, painful process requiring an abundance of arcane technical knowledge. Much of the pain is gone when you install SonicWALL Plus DMZ. — John Green SpectraGuard Enterprise This wireless IPS helps ensure that only authorized wireless clients and APs connect to your wired network. — Adam Carheden Steel Belted Radius — Jonathan Chau Three MIMO Wireless Access Points Adam Carheden reviews three MIMO access point products that improve the range of your wireless connection. — Adam Carheden Tripwire 2.1 for Windows NT A review of Tripwire Security Systems' Tripwire 2.1 for Windows NT, an intrusion-detection system that monitors Windows NT file systems and Registry key integrity. — Mark Joseph Edwards Virtual File Cabinet VFC is an intranet, Web-based document storage and management system. Use VFC through any Web browser to store, retrieve, and search for documents within a central storage facility. — Michael P. Deignan Virtual Network Computing 3.3.3r7 AT&T's remote computing software comes for free, can control cross-platform, and provides fully available source code, but it's best suited for the expert user. — Larry J. Seltzer Visio Standard 5.0 Build flowcharts, organization charts, and timelines with ease. — Michael P. Deignan WebBoard 4.0 O'Reilly has raised the bar for collaborative Web software. With WebBoard 4.0, the company has put online forums and realtime chat into one package with an attractive price, giving us a well rounded product that’s easy to use with a lot of extras. — T.J. Harty WebFOCUS Application Server Information Builders' WebFOCUS Application Server lets you provide online reports to users in your intranet or your external Web sites. — Michael P. Deignan WebStalker Pro WebStalker-Pro from Trusted Information Systems is a security monitoring and response system that monitors your Web site and automatically notifies you about security breaches and other invalid attempts to access your Web site. — Michael P. Deignan WinFax PRO 8.0 Symantec’s WinFax PRO 8.0 is a fax solution that lets you send and receive faxes efficiently, uses imported data, and isn't susceptible to paper jams and low toner levels. — Jonathan Cragle www.SitePromoter Power Solutions for Business offers www.SitePromoter. This product is a data management tool that registers your Web site on more than 150 Web-based search engines and Internet directories. — Michael P. Deignan Zip 250MB Drive Iomega goes back to the drawing board to redesign the Zip drive. — Jonathan Chau [Lab Notes] Serial Console Servers The Lab takes a sideways glance at serial console servers, putting them to the test as a hybrid solution for simplifying console and sonfiguration operations. — Ed Roth [Tricks & Traps] Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--December 15, 2003 This week, John Savill tells you how to rename a Windows 2003 DC, how to install NetBEUI in Windows 2003, how to create a script that removes all subfolders from a directory except those that you want to keep, and more. — John Savill Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--December 22, 2003 This week, John Savill tells you why you might receive 601 errors when using SMS 2.0, how to use Group Policy to disable the Windows Server 2003 Shutdown Event Tracker, and more. — John Savill Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--January 26, 2004 This week, John Savill explains how to change the amount of memory the Exchange 2000 Store can use, how to determine whether the Exchange 2003 ForestPrep and DomainPrep tasks have run, how to determine which domain is the forest root domain, and more. — John Savill Windows XP and 2000 Tips & Tricks UPDATE, May 13, 2002 John Savill tells you how to uninstall then reinstall NetMeeting under Windows 2000, how to modify the installation credential settings in Windows 2000, how to configure which icons Windows XP displays in the notification area, and more. — John Savill [News Analysis] A Guided Video Tour of Windows 7 Don't feel like installing the Windows 7 beta, or just want someone to show you around? Check out 10 screencasts that will give you a thorough look at many aspects of the upcoming desktop OS. — Zac Wiggy A New Kid on the OLAP Block — Karen Watterson Collaboration Brings Enterprise Search to SharePoint Microsoft outlines search strategy roadmap. — Gayle Rodcay Exclusive: Steve Ballmer to Champion New Office 12 File Formats At the upcoming TechEd 2005, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will announce details of the new file formats that Microsoft Office 12 will use. — Paul Thurrott In Memory of Vista With the Windows 7 RC now available to the public, you may not see much value in its predecessor. But Vista had some good points. — Zac Wiggy IT Departments Doing More with Less Is Topic of White Paper Although many IT departments face the prospect of cutback, its core responsibilities are not going away. Understanding business processes and using automation where appropriate can help IT pros do more with less. — Karen Bemowski Judge Issues Findings of Fact in Microsoft Trial On Friday, after the stock markets closed, US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued a findings of fact in the suit against Microsoft brought by the Justice Department and 19 state attorneys general. — Barrie Sosinsky Should IT Pros Install the Windows 7 Beta? The official beta of Microsoft's new desktop OS is available now on TechNet and tomorrow for everyone. There are lots of reasons to install it, but also lots of reasons to wait. — Zac Wiggy The Windows Server 2008 R2 Beta Is Open: What's In It? Live migrations in Hyper-V and other virtualization improvements headline the changes in R2. John Savill has been talking about how the new features work. — Zac Wiggy Time for a Time Update Daylight saving time is being extended by about four weeks in the United States and Canada. Here's how to update your Windows computers. — Karen Bemowski What You Need To Be Ready for Windows 7 Reliable sources are saying the RC will be available very soon. Are you ready for the new OS? — Zac Wiggy Which Windows 7 Edition Should My Business Use? Windows 7 will come in two main editions that should satisfy most users, but what about all the other editions? — Zac Wiggy WinInfo UPDATE - Intel-based Macs will Run Windows Vista - January 12, 2006 At the Macworld Expo this week in San Francisco, Apple executives confirmed that Windows Vista will run on the new Intel-based iMac desktop and MacBook Pro computers. — Paul Thurrott [Book Reviews] How to Implement Microsoft Windows NT Server 4 — Ben Rothke Looking into Windows NT "Looking into Windows NT: A Before-You-Leap Guide to Microsoft's Network Solution" is the first book to address the NT purchase from a business standpoint. — Ben Rothke Managing the Windows NT Registry A review of Paul Robichaux's book "Managing the Windows NT Registry". A helpful addition to any NT administrator's bookshelf. — Mark T. Edmead MS Exchange Server v5.0 and Microsoft Exchange Server Unleashed Two new books cover the ins and outs of Exchange. — Mark T. Edmead MS Windows NT Server Resource Kit Version 4.0, Supplement Two The resource kit is an invaluable tool for power users and network administrators. — Craig Zacker Tuning and Sizing NT Server Learn about NT performance management and capacity planning. — Joe Rudich Windows Annoyances The book fails to fulfill its promise to give readers immense control over NT. — Robert Bernecky Windows NT Server 4 Administrator's Guide "Windows NT Server 4 Administrator's Guide" is one of the finest books available on administering a network with NT Server 4.0. — Daniel F. Wygant [News] 30GB Zunes Quit Working Reports around the web say all of Microsoft's 30GB Zune Players get stuck at startup as of midnight last night. — Zac Wiggy A Web 2.0 Christmas Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa. He's alive and well and posting on FaceBook. — Gayle Rodcay AMD Processor Shanghai Arrives A new quad-core processor with plenty of memory for virtualization joins the family of AMD Opteron processors. — Caroline Marwitz Android 1.5 "Cupcake" Release Google has released an SDK of Android 1.5, the latest version of its open-source mobile OS. — Brian Reinholz Announcing the Windows IT Pro Regional Forums We've added regional topic areas to our Windows IT Pro forums. If you're an IT pro looking for some local help and advice to a specific problem, our new regional forums provide a way for readers to connect with each other at the local level. — Jeff James Arkeia Offers Virtual Backup "Appliance" That Runs on VMware Virtual appliance lets you run Arkeia Network Backup v8.0 in a VMware virtual machine on a Windows or Linux computer. — Anne Grubb Asset Management Solution Gets Vendors Off Your Back BigFix's Software Asset Management solution comes, appropriately, at a time when vendors are more frequently wanting to audit software licenses. — Caroline Marwitz AutoMate 7 Is Action-Packed If you want to automate processes to save time but you don't want to learn how to write scripts, check out the newest version of Network Automation's AutoMate. It features more than 230 actions that let you automate a wide variety of tasks. — Karen Bemowski AVG update deletes critical file in Windows XP A recent update made the antivirus software prompt users to delete user32.dll. — Zac Wiggy Bill Hilf Discusses Trends in Microsoft’s Server Platform Strategy Windows Server Foundation promises to be an end-to-end server solution for small businesses. But can Microsoft really create a one-size-fits-all in such a diverse market? — James Bannan Breaking News: No Charge for XenServer In a personal blog Wednesday, a Citrix official revealed that Citrix will release XenServer for free next week — Zac Wiggy Bring SharePoint Home: Colligo Releases Contributor 4 With Colligo Contributor 4, you can interact with and manage SharePoint through familiar, local programs such as Outlook and Explorer. — Brian Reinholz CA Releases Home Security Suite Enhanced malware protection — Lavon Peters CA Strengthens Ties with VMware Earlier this week at the CA World conference in Las Vegas, CA and VMware announced they had begun work on a long-term partnership to develop a family of systems management products centered on VMware's virtualization platform. — Jeff James Citrix Explains the New Essentials Set for an April release, the Citrix Essentials packages will add more to the now-free but still fully-featured XenServer — Zac Wiggy Cloud Computing More Expensive for Corporations? According to a study by McKinsey analyst William Forrest, migrating all of a large company's data to the cloud is actually more expensive. However, the situation is not so black and white. — Brian Reinholz Confick or Downadup Worm Can Be Squashed: By Common Sense Turning off Windows Update was not the best IT idea this UK hospital ever had. Will a cybersecurity pro's attempts to raise computer security awareness in business leaders someday prevent such silliness? — Caroline Marwitz Daylight Saving Time Update for Windows NT and Window 9x The 2007TZFIX shareware program updates daylight saving time on machines running Windows 95 and later (except Vista). — Karen Bemowski Deja Goo? A New Gmail Exploit Strikes (Again) Google Gmail might be at risk for yet another security exploit. — Caroline Marwitz Diskeeper 2009 to Offer Defrag Improvements Diskeeper Corporation has announced that Diskeeper 2009 will include a number of new and improved disk defragmentation features. — Jeff James Do Not Reply (to All) Email storm disrupts State Department communications system. — Gayle Rodcay Don't Forget: Mainstream XP, Office '03 Support Ending Free support for Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 ends in less than three weeks — Zac Wiggy Eliminate the Paper Trail and Save Some Money Reducing the amount of paper used in core business processes can lead to many benefits, including reduce costs and more effective processes. — Karen Bemowski Exclusive: Has Microsoft Found a New Longhorn Shell in Project M? Sources close to Microsoft told me this week that the software giant has started a mysterious new software project called Project M, which might be a replacement for the Windows shell in Longhorn. — Paul Thurrott Exclusive: Windows 2000 UR1, WSUS Coming in Early June Microsoft sets early June ship dates for WSUS and Microsoft Rollup 1 for Windows 2000. — Paul Thurrott Exclusive: WMP 11 to Be Major Release; Beta This November Microsoft decides to move the Longhorn media player to Windows XP and make WMP 11 a major release. — Paul Thurrott Forget Windows 7--What About Group Policy? While everyone's off chasing after Windows 7, I'm still trying to figure out Group Policy. — Caroline Marwitz Google Abandons Yahoo! Deal Yahoo! won't get access to Google's advertising programs. — Gayle Rodcay Google Adds Voice Search to Android Months after the iPhone was released with the capability, users of the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 can now conduct Google searches by voice. — Brian Reinholz Google Releases Chrome Beta 2 Chrome beta 2 is now available for download. Good news? It's even faster. Bad news? It still lacks most of the features that kept people sticking with IE or Firefox last release. — Brian Reinholz Google's Android Running on a Netbook The team that got the Linux-based OS to run on a netbook reported that it was easy. — Zac Wiggy Government OKs new AMD company The Foundry Company will act as the manufacturing arm of the recently-split AMD. — Zac Wiggy Group Policy Management Editor Support Added to Privilege Manager Least privilege and Group Policy Management Editor join in this desktop security solution. — Caroline Marwitz Group Policy Processing: Command-Line Tool Shows Status at a Glance A free tool shows you the status of Group Policy processing and can be used on a single machine or an entire domain. — Caroline Marwitz Happy Birthday Facebook Facebook matures into a hugely popular social-networking site, but is it a boon or bane to businesses? — Gayle Rodcay Hate Your VPN? New Features in Windows Server 2008 R2 Could Ease Your Pain Managing remote users will be easier, Microsoft hopes, thanks to two of Windows Server 2008 R2's new features--BranchCache and DirectAccess. — Caroline Marwitz High Speed File-Transfer Solution: Aspera If your industry needs to move large data files worldwide, you might want to check out Aspera's solution. — Caroline Marwitz Hold Virtual Meetings on Virtually Any Platform RHUB's TurboMeeting lets anyone with a browser join a web-based meeting, no matter whether that browser is on a Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, or even iPhone platform. This appliance also offers other collaborative capabilities, such as remote desktop support. — Karen Bemowski How Much Money Can We Save If We Use Power-Management Policies? The results of a recent survey help answer this and other questions concerning green IT initiatives. — Karen Bemowski HP, NetSuite Partner to Offer SaaS Business Apps for SMBs HP's network of channel partners will deliver NetSuite's hosted business management application suite with HP server and storage hardware products. — Anne Grubb Identity and Security Merge at Tech-Ed EMEA: ILM 2.0 RC Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager 2.0 RC aims to plug a growing enterprise security hole: identity. Coming from the newly merged Identity and Security division, it could signal a sea-change in security solutions. — Caroline Marwitz IE 8 Likely to be Released in 2009 A new public beta of the browser will be out in early 2009, with a final release to follow. — Zac Wiggy Improve Your Desktop Backup and Security Symantec recently released a beta version of Norton 360 3.0. — Lavon Peters iPhone Ad Targets Business Users Think the iPhone doesn't have the capabilities needed to be a valuable business phone? According to Apple, even if they don't come standard, there's an app for just about everything. — Brian Reinholz Is your SharePoint Data Safe? A recent study points to a laxity in SharePoint security. — Gayle Rodcay Lawsuit Filed Against Satyam Computer Services How Satyam got in trouble; what well-known computer company partnered with it; what one customer is saying about the IT outsourcing company. — Caroline Marwitz Making History History-making events and history making software releases. — Dan Holme Message Classification for Web Access Helps Secure OWA Titus Labs’ message classification product for Microsoft Outlook Web Access lets you enforce corporate security policies for web mail use. — B. K. Winstead Messaging and Active Directory: 2 Solution Providers Partner Up Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange go together like peanut butter and chocolate--hence the announcement today from solution providers STEALTHbits and Binary Tree. — Caroline Marwitz MetaVis Launches SharePoint Content Management Products Metavis' two new products give you a bird's eye view of your SharePoint infrastructure and let you make quick changes in hierarchy, taxonomy, settings, and more. — Brian Reinholz Microsoft Admits New SQL Server Vulnerability An exploit targeting SQL Server could allow remote execution of malicious code. — Editors Microsoft and EMC Collaborate to Protect Data Microsoft is partnering with EMC's RSA security division to help prevent enterprise data loss and protect sensitive information. — Lavon Peters Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online Released to the Masses Microsoft announced the general availability of Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, key components of the company’s Microsoft Online Services. The company also announced a future release of an IT management and security online service. — B. K. Winstead Microsoft Mission-Critical Support Beefed Up Mission-critical systems gain dedicated support engineers, access to product teams, with Microsoft's new Premier Mission Critical Support. — Caroline Marwitz Microsoft Offers Nearly Free Software and Tools Nurturing startups means more than giving them an incubator--it means getting them on a steady diet of nearly free Microsoft products via the BizSpark program. — Caroline Marwitz Microsoft Offers New Migration Tool A tool to help you assess migration readiness, new from Microsoft. — Caroline Marwitz Microsoft Opens Beta for Desktop Virtualization Wary of moving to Windows Vista or Windows 7 because of application incompatibility? Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V) could be your answer, and it's available in public beta form right now. — Zac Wiggy Microsoft Releases SharePoint Online Standard Developer Guide Find out what customization opportunities are available with Microsoft's new SharePoint Online service. — Gayle Rodcay Microsoft Service Pack Blocker Tool to Expire No more blocking Vista SP1 and XP SP3. — Caroline Marwitz Microsoft Skills Week: March 9-13 Check out the 175 partner-led events happening between now and TechEd and see if there is something that interests you. — Brian Reinholz Microsoft Sysinternals Troubleshooting Tool Updated, Bundled Microsoft bundles Sysinternals tools, Windows IT Pro bundles articles about troubleshooting into article about Microsoft bundling Sysinternals tools. — Caroline Marwitz Microsoft Views: Windows Server Foundation Windows Server Foundation offers and inexpensive server-class operating system for businesses with less than 15 users. — James Bannan Microsoft's Fix it Tool Automates Error Resolution This functionality lets you click a button on a Knowledge Base article to download a program that fixes the issue described in the article. — Gayle Rodcay Microsoft: Windows 7 Beta is a Success and We're Extending It An entry in the Windows 7 Blog announced an extension of the Windows 7 open beta to February 10. — Zac Wiggy Minasi Conference Offers IT Knowledge Fest Looking for a reasonably priced technical conference? The annual gathering of Mark Minasi's online community April 19–22--open to all MR&D forum members--offers a budget-friendly venue for networking with your peers and learning from Windows IT experts. — Anne Grubb Mini-Pre: Palm's New $99 "Pixie" Smartphone Shortly after Palm launches the much-anticipated Pre, the company will likely be releasing a low-price counterpart. — Brian Reinholz MSPAlliance Offers Green IT Certification for Managed Service Providers MSPAlliance has developed a set of green IT standards that can help managed service providers and their clients save money and the environment. — Karen Bemowski NETIKUS.NET Releases EventSentry 2.90 EventSentry 2.90 builds on the product’s monitoring capabilities with native Server 2008/Vista support and other changes based on feedback from users. — Brian Reinholz NetIQ Aegis Adding SCOM Support A new adapter for Aegis, announced today, will add options for working with Microsoft System Center Operations Manager. — Zac Wiggy New DataViz Products Push Android Toward Enterprise, Maybe Since its release, Linux-based mobile OS Android phone have been touted as even less enterprise ready than the iPhone. Could enough apps turn the tides? — Brian Reinholz New Migration Tool and Resource Scheduling from Kerio MailServer Kerio Technologies’ Microsoft Exchange Server alternative has added the ability to schedule resources and now offers a migration tool to make switching from Exchange simpler than ever. — B. K. Winstead New OS may be step toward all-cloud computing The recently announced Cloud OS could lead to computers without OSs. — Zac Wiggy New Version of PowerShell Tool Provides Prepackaged Scripts and Commands The QuickClick Library in Idera's PowerShellPlus 3.0 features around 100 prepackaged scripts and commands for performing tasks in Windows, Active Directory, SharePoint, VMware, and other areas. — Karen Bemowski No Surprise: IT Spending on the Decline at US Financial Services Firms TowerGroup report forecasts continued falloff in IT spending at financial firms this year, advises firms to modernize IT to remain competitive. — Anne Grubb NTRadmin Offers Secure SaaS Option for Remote IT Management NTRglobal of Barcelona brings its secure remote IT management solution to North America, offering it as both software as a service (SaaS) and traditionally licensed solutions. — Anne Grubb Obama Campaign Exploits Text Messaging Text messaging was used widely in the recent presidential election campaign, with Obama’s camp leading the way in implementing this technology. — B. K. Winstead OffiSync V2: Google Docs in Microsoft Office In May, I reviewed the first version of OffiSync, a product that integrates Google Docs, Apps, and Search into MS Office. Today, OffiSync has released version 2 of the product. — Brian Reinholz Online Training on CommVault Software — Brian Reinholz OpenOffice.org Improves Commenting, File Locking The new version of this free competitor to Microsoft Office, now available, has substantial improvements. — Zac Wiggy OpenSpan Platform 4.1 improves Lotus support The new version of the platform also enhances Microsoft Access and Oracle Forms support — Zac Wiggy Oracle to Acquire Virtual Iron In its second big purchase in a few weeks, Oracle announced today it would acquire server virtualization company Virtual Iron. — Zac Wiggy Palm Pre Available June 6 Those who have been waiting eagerly for Palm's much-anticipated Pre release will be pleased to hear that we're only weeks away. — Brian Reinholz Partnership to Provide Companies with Data and Reports on Their Environmental Impact Similar to a Dun & Bradstreet credit report, EQ2 will provide environmental quality reports that are based on the greenhouse gas data collected and aggregated by AMEE. — Karen Bemowski PowerShell 2.0 One Step Closer to Final Release Microsoft has released the second Community Technology Preview (CTP) for Windows PowerShell 2.0. — Alex K. Angelopoulos PowerShell Got Smart About Smart Quotes If you've ever had a script fail because of smart quotes, you'll be happy to hear that smart quotes and other characters that have been mangled by auto-format or auto-correct settings aren't a problem for Windows PowerShell. — Karen Bemowski , et al. Process Credit Cards with iPhone A new application will allow you to process credit cards anywhere that you can take your iPhone or iTouch. — Brian Reinholz Quest Integrates vWorkspace with SCVMM and App-V vWorkspace provides management for all-Microsoft VDI systems. — Zac Wiggy Renault F1 Team Leading the Way to a Greener Sport Formula One racing isn't exactly considered an environmentally friendly sport, but the Renault F1 Team is working to change that. And IT is playing an important role in the team's effort to simultaneously save money and the environment. — Karen Bemowski RIM Announces BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 Enterprise phone manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) has announced BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, which offers enhanced security and management capabilities. — Brian Reinholz Samsung Unveils Solar Cell Phone Samsung has released a new touch-screen cell phone called Blue Earth that is equipped with solar panels. — Brian Reinholz SanDisk Introduces Improvement to SSD Performance ExtremeFFS, SanDisk's new solid-state disk (SSD) file management system, has the potential to make random writes 100 times faster. — Derek Maness Satyam CEO Reveals Computer Software Company Lied About Profits Satyam CEO B. Ramalinga Raju lied about the software services company's profits. Is Satyam India's Enron? And what about the Fortune 500 customers who entrusted their computer systems to Satyam? — Caroline Marwitz ScriptLogic updates Help Desk, Remote Support The new version of Help Desk Authority is available now, and a public beta for the new version of Remote Support Center is open. — Zac Wiggy SCVMM 2008 R2 Now In Beta System Center Virtual Machine Manager's new version supports Live Migration, multiple VMs on one LUN — Zac Wiggy Selective Cell Phone Blocking Appearing in Prisons Need to lock down communications? A new technology has been deployed in prisons to allow some cellular phones, but block phones smuggled in by prisoners. — Zac Wiggy Send Your End Users for help from Microsoft Answers The new site, currently in beta, offers step-by-step instructions in a simple question and answer format. — Zac Wiggy Set-and-Forget Power-Management Solution New Boundary Technologies' Green IT Solution not only implements power-management policies, but also automatically monitors and enforces them. — Karen Bemowski SharePoint 2010: Features, System Requirements Emerge No more MOSS acronym, searches get faceted, IE 8.0 support but not IE 6.0--welcome to SharePoint 2010. — Caroline Marwitz SharePoint or Lotus Notes Businesses are striving to gain a competitive edge in the global marketplace by using collaboration strategies. How do you choose the right application? — Gayle Rodcay SharePoint Training on a Kindle If you take one of Critical Path Training's SharePoint courses, you receive a Kindle 2 loaded with relevant training materials and the assurance of information updates over time. — Brian Reinholz SharePoint: Still Strong in a Tough Economy — Gayle Rodcay SP2 for Vista and Server 2008 now available The new service pack doesn't change much for Vista users, but it adds Hyper-V to Server 2008 — Zac Wiggy SSD Announcements Precede CES Several companies are touting new solid state drive products, part of a trend toward SSDs. — Zac Wiggy Sun Microsystems to Lay Off More Than 5,000 Employees As part of Sun's "global realignment" the company plans to focus more on cloud computing, minus 5,000 to 6,000 of its employees. — Caroline Marwitz Super Bowl Technology: IT Solutions Work Behind the Scenes to Secure Football Game Technology team secures Super Bowl, unifies law enforcement and first responders, and provides a glimpse of cutting edge solutions. — Caroline Marwitz Supporting BlackBerry Users? Bomgar Adds RIM Device to Its OS List BlackBerry users see the same problems Windows users do--which is why Bomgar added BlackBerry support to its appliance-based remote control solution. — Caroline Marwitz Symantec Managed Endpoint Protection Services Moves Client Security Monitoring to Cloud Now available, the product lets Symantec monitor your end user protection software, freeing up IT pros. — Zac Wiggy Symantec Offers Cloud Computing–Based Configuration Management Symantec launches a new cloud online services platform, Veritas Operations Services, with two solutions that assess pre-installation server and storage configurations. — Anne Grubb Symantec Unveils Improvements to Veritas CommandCentral Symantec has announced some improvements to their Veritas CommandCentral product family that the company claims will help IT pros reduce the cost and management of existing storage solutions. — Jeff James TechEd 2009 Giveaways: IT Training Attending TechEd? Be sure to enter to win free training courses on Windows Server 2008 Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007, and SharePoint 2007. — Brian Reinholz The Tech Behind Cisco's Unified Computing Cisco's attempt to revolutionize data centers, announced Monday, includes some new ideas about technology. — Zac Wiggy Think Eco-Logical Program to Help IT Organizations Go Green The newly launched Think Eco-Logical program is designed to educate IT organizations on how to combine the environmental side (Eco) of IT sustainability with the economics (Logical) of achieving environmental efficiencies. — Karen Bemowski Train Signal Releases Server 2008 MCITP Training Packages Looking for a certification that demonstrates Windows proficiency? Consider either the Server 2008 Enterprise Administrator or Server Administrator MCITP certification. — Brian Reinholz Twitter Tweeters Twack Twestival Today Twitter's celebration of Tweeting happens today in hundreds of cities around the world. — Caroline Marwitz Understanding the SharePoint Security Model Learn how to secure your valuable SharePoint assets in this roundtable discussion featuring three well-known SharePoint experts. Watch the video now. — Gayle Rodcay Understanding your IT Infrastructure Here's an interesting survey about who in your IT department manages which data and processes. — Gayle Rodcay Unisys Ships New ES7000 500 Series Read about the new Unisys entries into the high-end Microsoft server market. — Kathy Ivens US Feds Award Unisys $1.4 million for Email Security and Identity Management services Implementing Active Directory and securing Microsoft Exchange are part of the US government's effort to tighten up security for its employees and contractors. — Caroline Marwitz Use PowerShell to Manage Compellent SANs Compellent Technologies had created a set of PowerShell cmdlets to automate server and storage tasks in Storage Center SANs. — Karen Bemowski Verizon Selects Microsoft Search for Its Phones Solidifying a big win for Microsoft's search business, the soon-to-be largest cellular carrier has selected Microsoft to provide its default search platform for all of its cell phones. — Brian Reinholz Virtual Learning Opportunities for SharePoint Check out these free resources for SharePoint admins, developers, and users. — Gayle Rodcay Vista Capable Lawsuit Could Cost Microsoft Billions Microsoft could pay billions for misleading customers about the capability of PCs to run Windows Vista. — Caroline Marwitz VMware Announces Virtual Campus At VMworld Europe 2009, VMware announced a new training center to boost third-party sales. — Brian Reinholz Webteacher: $50 Web Development Clinics Webteacher Software offers inexpensive, live, 90-minute clinics on Java, PHP, Perl, and MySQL. — Brian Reinholz What Does Windows 7 Mean for Plummeting Graphics Chips Sales? GPU sales were down 28 percent fourth quarter '08 from fourth quarter '07. With Windows 7 built to perform better on low-end equipment, the situation is looking bleak for graphics chips. — Zac Wiggy Will GDrive Soon Replace your Hard Drive? Unconfirmed reports that Google's GDrive will soon launch are fueling speculation that the PC could be on its way out. — Gayle Rodcay Will IBM's "Microsoft-Free" Desktop Solution Sway IT Pros? IBM announced last week that it had joined forces with Canonical and Virtual Bridges to unveil a Linux-based, virtual desktop-powered computing solution that IBM claims offers signifcant cost advantages over comparable Microsoft-based offerings. — Jeff James Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Tool Records Symptoms Problem Steps Recorder should make it a little easier for IT pros to see what exactly is wrong with an end user's computer. — Zac Wiggy Windows 7 Team Hints that Leaked Build is the Real Beta A post today in the Microsoft Engineering Windows 7 blog just happened to use the number "7000." Coincidence? — Zac Wiggy Windows Server 2008 Foundation Does What Server 2008 Does, Just for Fewer Users Server 2008's new Foundation edition, announced today, will be able to do nearly everything that Server 2008 Standard can do but cost less. Its biggest limitation is on the number of users it supports. — Zac Wiggy Windows XP User Sues Microsoft A lawsuit against Microsoft is hardly news, except when the plaintiff is a Windows XP user. Does downgrading from Vista cause suffering? — Caroline Marwitz WinInfo Daily UPDATE January 16, 2007: With Vista, Microsoft Seeks to Limit Bundled Software According to a recent report by CBS News, Microsoft believes that PC makers are undermining the quality of Windows by bundling so many horrible add-on applications with their systems. — Paul Thurrott [Interoperability] Interoperability, 2003 Style You used to be able to avoid compatibility problems by using only Microsoft OSs and server applications. But that's no longer the case, and the situation will get worse as organizations increasingly delay upgrading their OSs and applications. — Mark Minasi [WebDev] Updates Allaire HomeSite has come out with version 2.5a. — T.J. Harty [TOP 10] Cool Free Tools for Windows Admins Use these utilities to perform network or desktop maintenance, recover deleted files, burn ISO images and copy boot partitions, and other Windows administrative tasks. — Michael Otey Steps for Getting Started with PowerShell Want to learn PowerShell? This 10-step curriculum lists the resources you need, from the documentation to sample scripts. — Michael Otey Vista Command-Line Tools Modify your boot configuration, manage ACLs, perform backups and system assessments, and other useful functions with these helpful Windows Vista command-line tools. — Michael Otey [Buyer's Guide] 2003 Summer Annual Online Vendor Directory — Editors Active Directory Auditing Tools Auditing Active Directory changes? Minimize the workload with a third-party AD auditing product—directory experts reveal what's important to look for in AD auditing tools. — Jeff James Buyer's Guide: Enterprise Wireless Routers Wi-fi for an enterprise takes a high grade of equipment. Compare these vendors' offerings. — Zac Wiggy Enterprise Wireless Routers Compare several enterprise wireless routers to determine which is right for your network. — Sam Davenport Online Reader Quiz Test your Microsoft Exchange recovery knowledge by taking our online reader quiz. — Paul Robichaux Share Your Audit Experience Have you been audited? Share your experience and we'll publish the best story. — Adam Carheden Tablet PCs If your desktop computer has become your albatross, the Tablet PC might be a dream come true, offering tremendous computing power, extreme portability, and dynamic interaction methods. Here’s your guide to choosing the model that’s right for you. — Jason Bovberg Take our Instant Poll: Have you been audited? Have you been audited? Vote in our Instant Poll. — Editors Tell us which product is your favorite Have you used the products in this Buyer's Guide? Tell us your favorite. — Editors The BSA and SIIA Speak BSA and SIIA executives answer questions about the details of software audits. — Adam Carheden What Software is on my network? How do Software Inventory Management tools find what's on your network? See the comments to this article for a discussion on why software discovery is so important and how it's done. — Adam Carheden Windows Mobile 5.0 Smart Phones and Pocket PCs These feature-packed mobile devices can function as your office away from the office and eliminate the need to pack a tool belt full of cell phones, pagers, and PDAs when you're on the go. — Megan Keller [Training and Certification] A Deal for MCTs Columnist Steve Linthicum reports a deal that lets MCTs attain Certified Technical Trainer certification. He then discusses more free courses from Microsoft. — Steven W. Linthicum A New Windows 2000 Hands-On-Training Kit Columnist Steve Linthicum discusses a new Windows 2000 Training Kit and a new IBM certification track that names MCSE certifications as prerequisites. — Steven W. Linthicum An Accelerated Exam for MCPs; A New Benefit for MCTs Steve Linthicum discusses a new exam and the tough decisions that it will present for MCPs. He then reports that MCTs can now review selected prerelease beta versions of the MOC. — Steven W. Linthicum An MCT Discount; More Free Training Resources Columnist Steve Linthicum reports on a new exam discount for MCTs, some free training resources for Windows 2000, and a Windows 2000 + Internet certification that we might see next year. — Steven W. Linthicum Another View on MCSE Certification Track Changes Columnist Steve Linthicum looks at the Windows 2000 MCSE certification track and provides a roadmap for the MCSE community. — Steven W. Linthicum Avoiding the Paper MCSE Disease Follow this guide to avoid becoming a Paper MCSE, someone who passes the exams but doesn't know his stuff. — Jonathan Bischke Back to School Time Jon Bischke offers six tips you can use to maximize the benefits from instructor-led training. — Jonathan Bischke Becoming an ACE The most successful IT professionals know how to build a career based on a complete package of academics, certification, and experience. Here are tips for becoming an IT ace. — Jonathan Bischke CertTutor.net UPDATE, July 11, 2003 Orin Thomas explains why you should schedule your certification exam ahead of time, and when it's a good idea to postpone an exam. — Various Authors Fiber Optics Training; Cisco Resources Columnist Steve Linthicum, always on the lookout for free training resources, shares some recent Web-based discoveries. — Steven W. Linthicum Free Online Training Resources Columnist Steve Linthicum shares his thoughts about Course 1579, which he recently took online, and writes about new certifications from Motorola. — Steven W. Linthicum Gearing Up for Windows 2000 Columnist Steve Linthicum, grudgingly accepting Microsoft's dates for retiring the Windows NT 4.0-based certifications, turns his attention to Windows 2000—but he gets the runaround from the folks at Microsoft Support. — Steven W. Linthicum Get Certified in Financial Planning Don't waste money on training resources you don't need. Follow this guide to spending your money wisely on exam-preparation materials. — Jonathan Bischke Getting College Credit for MCSE Training This week, columnist Steve Linthicum shares some tips for getting academic credit for the MCSE courses you take at a typical regionally accredited academic institution. — Steven W. Linthicum Intel’s Online Resources; Microsoft VB Scripting Training Welcome to the third in a series of articles addressing IT-related training and certification issues, with a focus on Microsoft’s certification program. — Steven W. Linthicum Jumpstart Windows 2000 Training With Windows 3.5x and Windows NT MCSE certifications set to expire in just over 2 years, Columnist Steve Linthicum says it's time to jumpstart your Windows 2000 training. — Steven W. Linthicum Microsoft's Certified Architect Program Learn about this high-level certification from an expert who's served on the certification beta program's review board. — Tony Redmond More MCP Benefits Gone; Qualifying as an MCT Columnist Steve Linthicum discusses Microsoft's plans to eliminate the MSDN Certified Membership Program and reviews the requirements for attaining the Microsoft Certified Trainer status. — Steven W. Linthicum New Certification Resources Columnist Steve Linthicum shares a certification gold mine he found on the Web and reports on a new CompTIA certification. — Steven W. Linthicum New MCSEs Lose TechNet Columnist Steve Linthicum discusses Microsoft's recent announcement that it would no longer provide a free 1-year subscription to TechNet for new MCSEs. — Steven W. Linthicum On the Road to Certification Learn how you can reduce the MCSE testing fee, what to expect in the Networking Essentials exam, where to go for free online training, and the value of having companion certifications. — Steven W. Linthicum Online Resources from IBM Columnist Steve Linthicum discusses a new deal that IBM has made to deliver hundreds of courses via satellite. — Steven W. Linthicum Required Self-Study Resources for Windows 2000 and .NET Exams Clarke Lebarge describes the hardware and software setup you need to study for Microsoft's Windows 2000 and .NET exams. — Clarke Lebarge Save on Course 1579 Columnist Steve Linthicum suggests that you consider the deal that training centers are offering for Course 1579: Accelerated Training for Updating Support Skills and Designing a Directory Services Infrastructure for Microsoft Windows 2000. — Steven W. Linthicum Student Diary: Implementing and Administering a Win2K Network Infrastructure Author Orin Thomas describes his three-week course of study before taking a Win2K core exam. — Orin Thomas Student Diary: Win2K Pro Exam Author Orin Thomas describes his study regimen and materials as he prepares for the Win2K Pro exam. — Orin Thomas Student Diary: Win2K Server Exam Author Orin Thomas relates his experiences studying for and taking the Win2K Server certification exam. — Orin Thomas Technical Certification Expo; New Resources from Cisco Columnist Steve Linthicum discusses a new Technical Certification Expo, another free training class from Microsoft, and new online resources from Cisco. — Steven W. Linthicum The Deal of the Millennium Columnist Steve Linthicum shares his latest discovery: Microsoft is making its Tech Week Post-Event DVD available to CTECs, AATPs, and MCTs who were unable to attend the conference. — Steven W. Linthicum The Sixty-Second Challenge You can probably find the answer to any IT problem on the Web -- if you know where to look. Use these tips for finding information fast on the Internet. — Jonathan Bischke View from the Training Center Training center personnel share their views on the certification testing world and offer tips to help you past your next exam. — Dick Lewis Waiting on Windows 2000; CISSP Certification Welcome to the second in a series of articles addressing IT-related training and certification issues, with a focus on Microsoft’s certification program. — Steven W. Linthicum [Keeping Up with Win2K and NT] 59 Post-SP3 Hotfixes Conflict With SP3 Upgrade The original versions of 59 post-SP3 hotfixes contain older file versions than those in the SP3 catalog and might conflict with your SP3 installation. — Paula Sharick A Critical IE Security Rollup, VM Hotfix, and Post-Win2K SP2 fixes Update your systems with a new IE security rollup, determine whether you need the new VM hotfix, and see a list of a few recent hotfixes for your Win2K systems. — Paula Sharick A Disaster-Recovery Reference List Paula Sharick presents a list of disaster-recovery resources. — Paula Sharick A DNS Coexistence Solution Paula Sharick shares a reader's solution to a problem she encountered last week. Plus, an Rdisk security fix, user profile problems, SAM sizing guidelines, and more. — Paula Sharick A First Look at Software Update Services After installing SUS, you need to be aware of some problems with configuring the settings and synchronizing and approving updates for distribution. — Paula Sharick A First Look at the New MBSA Paula Sharick offers an overview of the more notable new features in MBSA 1.2. — Paula Sharick A First Look at Windows Firewall Paula Sharick discloses the results of her XP SP2 Windows Firewall testing. — Paula Sharick A Group Policy Bug Fix; a WebDav Vulnerability; a Critical Scripting Vulnerability; and more Find out about a GPO vulnerablity, a WebDav vulnerability that affects IIS servers, a flaw in Windows Script Engine that could allow code execution, and more. — Paula Sharick A Look at Windows 2000 SP1 After installing Service Pack 1 (SP1), Paula Sharick shares her thoughts and some news from Microsoft Support Online about the new release. — Paula Sharick A NetBIOS Bug Fix; Browsing on Multihomed Systems Paula Sharick discusses a new NetBIOS bug fix and explains how to ensure successful browsing on multihomed Windows 2000 systems. — Paula Sharick A Netbt Blue Screen, a Winlogon Bug Fix, and Other Fixes Columnist Paula Sharick reports on several fixes she uncovered during her regular scouring of the Microsoft Support Online article database. — Paula Sharick A New Dr. Watson; A Netbt Bug Fix Paula Sharick explains how to bypass the video test after installing a new video driver. Plus, a NetBt bug fix, SP6/SP6a DNS changes, and a new version of Dr. Watson. — Paula Sharick A Permanent Fix for Windows XP SP1 File-Access Errors and No More Hard-Coded IE Links Learn how to fix XP SP1 file access errors and discover how you can use a default browser with Win2K browser-aware functions. — Paula Sharick A Post-SP1 Hotfix; A RAS Bug Fix Columnist Paula Sharick reports several new Windows 2000 fixes. — Paula Sharick A RAS Connection Solution; Control Panel Problems Paula Sharick explains how Win2K and NT apply Group Policy and system policy. Plus, RAS connection problems and disappearing Control Panel icons. — Paula Sharick A Roaming Profile Bug Fix; Ntbackup Access Violation Paula Sharick reports several new fixes for Windows 2000 and Windows NT and discusses IE 5.01 SP1 and an IE 5.0 repair tool. — Paula Sharick A Seagate Backup Exec Heads Up; Disabling the Briefcase Plus removing a deleted print job, removing IIS 4.0 and the NT Option Pack, and a dump file catch-22. — Paula Sharick A Second Look at Automatic Updates Paula Sharick takes another look at Microsoft's Automatic Updates client. — Paula Sharick A Serious New Registry Security Vulnerability Columnist Paula Sharick discusses a fix for a Registry security problem plus fixes for a Microsoft Cluster Server problem, SP5 print problems, and more. — Paula Sharick A System File Checker Bug Learn about a SFC bug that can potentially corrupt a system. — Paula Sharick A Terminal Services Print Fix, Two Win2K AD Bug Fixes, a Chkdsk Problem, and More Learn about and discover the fixes for a Terminal Services print problem, two Win2K AD bugs, a Checkdsk problem and more. — Paula Sharick A Vague Open License Expiration Notification Columnist Paula Sharick discusses a vague Open License Agreement warning from Microsoft; plus new memory leaks, a win32k.sys blue screen, a RAS installation problem, and more. — Paula Sharick A VSS Update, Problems with the Windows Time Service, an SBS 2003 POP3 Connector Patch, and More Read about Windows 2003's cumulative VSS update, discover how to debug the Windows Time Service, and learn about an SBS 2003 POP3 connector patch. — Paula Sharick A Win2K Licensing Bug Fix; Configuring Infrared Devices Paula Sharick discusses a Windows 2000 licensing bug fix, configuring infrared connections and infrared file transfers, removing NetMeeting, and more. — Paula Sharick A Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 Update Paula Sharick shares more details about the recently released Win2K SP2. — Paula Sharick A Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 Update Paula Sharick shares more Service Pack 2 (SP2) news. — Paula Sharick A Windows NT 4.0 Bug Fix Update Microsoft has released numerous bug fixes for Windows NT 4.0 problems during the last several weeks. Here’s a rundown of several that look important. — Paula Sharick A Windows NT Temporary Pagefile Lesson Recently, one of columnist Paula Sharick's domain controllers started misbehaving, so she went in search of answers. — Paula Sharick A Windows Sockets Bug Fix; NetWare Client Problems Plus Sysprep and ACPI, USB driver problems, a potential services.exe deadlock, and more. — Paula Sharick Addressing DoS Vulnerabilities Paula Sharick describes registry modifications you can make to close some common Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerabilities. — Paula Sharick An Account Lockout Problem; A DHCP Server Issue Paula Sharick discusses a Windows 2000 account lockout problem, an SFM file-size issue, a DHCP server problem, and more. — Paula Sharick An IE Security Rollup; An XP Dynamic Update; Hfnetchk Paula Sharick discusses a new security rollup for IE, a new Windows XP Dynamic Update, a new version of Hfnetchk, and more. — Paula Sharick An IEAK Compatibility Problem; An MSCS 1.0 Bug Fix Columnist Paula Sharick discusses an IEAK problem that affects Windows 2000, an MSCS bug fix, a RasDial API memory leak, a Norton AntiVirus problem, and more. — Paula Sharick An LPC Security Vulnerability Columnist Paula Sharick discusses a security flaw with an LPC Ports API function; plus redirector network performance, LPR problems, and more. — Paula Sharick An LPC Vulnerability Hotfix; NT 4.0 Profile Problem Columnist Paula Sharick discusses solutions she discovered for debugging in a mixed Win2K-NT 4.0 environment. Plus, an LPC hotfix, a French Outlook update, and more. — Paula Sharick An NT 4.0 Performance Monitor Bug Fix; Several Win2K Fixes Paula Sharick shares several new problems, including a Windows 2000 crash, a Tweak-UI issue, last logged on username differences, and more. — Paula Sharick An Outlook Express Hotfix; An Nltest Bug Fix Paula Sharick reveals recent fixes for Outlook Express, Nltest, and NT 4.0's Remote Registry Server. Plus, Knowledge Base entertainment! — Paula Sharick An RFPoison Antidote; An Important LSA Hotfix Columnist Paula Sharick discusses an RFPoison antidote, a LSA hotfix, a RRAS problem, a password filter update, and more. — Paula Sharick An SP6 Update and a Print Spooler Bug Fix Plus, several situations that can result in RPC server error messages. — Paula Sharick An SP6a Drive Letter Fix; A Registry Vulnerability Fix Paula Sharick discusses a Service Pack 6a drive letter problem, a vulnerability that can compromise cryptographic key security, and a time zone issue for Australians. — Paula Sharick Another IE Update; Critical Update Notification client Microsoft has released yet another cumulative IE update. Also, if you like Microsoft's Windows Update feature, you can add that functionality to Win2K. — Paula Sharick Another VM Hotfix Read about a security vulnerability in Microsoft VM, a computer account password fix, and a remote registry service bug fix. — Paula Sharick Application Problems in Windows XP SP2 Microsoft has finally shipped XP SP2. Learn about some problems and fixes for this latest release. — Paula Sharick Auditing and Updating Hotfixes Columnist Paula Sharick discusses Qfecheck, a hotfix verification and reporting tool. — Paula Sharick Blue Screens, Email Client Hangs, Network Browser Wars Fixes for a sporadic synchronization problem, Exchange and Outlook client hangs, a RAS LPR print bug, and an IIS 4.0 GET bug; plus, monitoring network browser wars. — Paula Sharick Bug Fixes and a Back Orifice 2000 Update New bug fixes available from Microsoft Support and a method to check whether Back Orifice 2000 is installed on your system. — Paula Sharick Bug Fixes vs. Hotfixes; Disappearing RAS Ports Bug fixes vs. hotfixes; plus a Win32k.sys blue screen update, disabling CHAP Authentication in RRAS, and a CSNW/GSNW bug fix. — Paula Sharick Cleaning Up After Sysprep Using Sysprep to build client images might create a few problems that you need to clean up. Paula Sharick shows you how. — Paula Sharick Code Red Worm, Fixes; NT 4.0 Post-SP6a Security Rollup — Paula Sharick Configuring Symantec's Antivirus Client for Non-Administrator Updates Paula asks vendors that provide online updates to eliminate the local administrator rights requirement. — Paula Sharick Critical Java Security Hotfix; a Group Policy Editor Problem; and Problems with Win2K Authentication and Kerberos Paula Sharick discusses a new critical Java hotfix, a bug that causes the Group Policy Editor to incorrectly clear the list of allowed Windows applications, and problems with Win2K authentication and Kerberos packets. — Paula Sharick Critical Software Updates and the Windows Update Catalog Learn the good and bad about the Windows Update catalog and discover where to find noncritical software updates. — Paula Sharick Cyber Threats and the Flawed Software Update Process Paula Sharick discusses the results of a recent vulnerability study. — Paula Sharick DCPROMO Problems; A VPN/ISA Server Conflict Paula Sharick discusses a problem that arises when you demote a domain controller (DC), a VPN/ISA Server conflict, a RRAS problem, and more. — Paula Sharick Defragment Access Violation; IDE Drivers Get a Major Tune-Up Learn about an access violation that might occur after you run either an analysis or a defragment operation, and learn why your systems might be getting slower. — Paula Sharick Diagnosing Logon Delays Paula Sharick discusses diagnosing and solving logon delays caused by three specific problems. — Paula Sharick Disabling the Windows Logo Key Columnist Paula Sharick presents a FAT-to-NTFS conversion problem, a script for disabling the windows logo key, a Registry edit to keep RAS connections active, and more. — Paula Sharick Expediting the Arduous Security Update Process Paula Sharick has several recommendations for Microsoft that would make the security update process easier for all of us. — Paula Sharick Help Us Maintain Reliable, Bug-Free Systems--An Open Letter to Microsoft Columnist Paula Sharick shares some suggestions for Microsoft that she believes will help you do your jobs. — Paula Sharick Hfnetchk Improvements; Win2K SP2 Hotfix Problems Paula Sharick discusses improvements to a security hotfix auditing tool and problems with Windows 2000 Service Pack 2. — Paula Sharick Hfnetchk: The Latest Security Hotfix Audit and Advisor Tool Paula Sharick explains Hfnetchk, a new tool that helps you identify and evaluate security hotfixes. — Paula Sharick How Good Is the Windows Server 2003 Basic Firewall? Paula Sharick evaluates the efficacy of Windows 2003's basic RRAS firewall. — Paula Sharick IE 5.01 Security Hotfix; Various Win2K Solutions Paula Sharick discusses a new hotfix that applies to Internet Explorer 5.01 only. Plus, a Win2K computer name confusion, DCPromo details, and automating account creation. — Paula Sharick IE Cumulative Update Is Messy Microsoft has released an updated cumulative IE rollup; if you distributed the original February 5 rollup, you might need to apply two additional hotfixes. — Paula Sharick IE Problems; Various Win2K Issues Paula Sharick revisits an Internet Explorer delay, a continuously spinning IE globe, a Telnet vulnerability, Win2K disk quotas, and more. — Paula Sharick IE Security Rollup; SMB-Related Bug Fixes; and a Domain Name Bug Fix Find out about the most recent IE security rollup and several SMB-related bug fixes. — Paula Sharick IIS 5.0 and Revoked Certificates; NT 4.0 Boot Switches Paula Sharick discusses various bugs before describing several boot switches you can play with to start NT 4.0 in a variety of modes. — Paula Sharick IIS and SMS 2.0 SP2 Fixes; A Browser Reference List Columnist Paula Sharick discusses an NT 4.0 IIS security hotfix, an SMS 2.0 SP2 bug fix, and the network browser service. — Paula Sharick IIS Security Rollup; TCP/IP, FRS, and Fax Service Fixes Read about a new IIS security rollup, TCP/IP crashes, an FRS memory leak and more. — Paula Sharick IIS Security Updates; Win2K and NT Trusts; An RPC Fix Paula Sharick describes new security updates for Microsoft IIS and several Windows NT 4.0 fixes. — Paula Sharick Important New Security Hotfixes Paula Sharick discusses three new security hotfixes. — Paula Sharick Important Windows Server 2003 Bug Fixes Learn about some recent bug fixes for DNS, FRS, VSS, and DC problems. — Paula Sharick In Search of a Windows 2000 Hardware Compatibility List Columnist Paula Sharick goes in search of a Win2K HCL and a downloadable Win2K Knowledge Base. Plus, an Eject PC bug and a VERITAS BackupExec update. — Paula Sharick Installation, COM+ Hotfixes; NT and Other Retirements — Paula Sharick Installing and Checking Hotfixes Plus NTFS and RPC hotfixes, a daylight savings time problem, and delegating monitoring and troubleshooting across your network. — Paula Sharick Internet Explorer's Profusion of Page Faults Columnist Paula Sharick discusses several new Internet Explorer page-fault problems. — Paula Sharick Interoperability, Memory Leaks, and Hardware Issues Columnist Paula Sharick discusses several recent Windows 2000 postings to Microsoft Support Online. — Paula Sharick IPSec Enhancements for Windows XP and Win2K Microsoft recently released an update for XP and Win2K platforms that lets clients create secure IPSec connections to a Windows 2003 server when the clients are behind a firewall or router running NAT. — Paula Sharick Is Your System Ready for Windows 2000? Columnist Paula Sharick discusses the Windows 2000 Readiness Analyzer, installing the new OS and hotfixes concurrently, and new Winnt32 options. — Paula Sharick It's a Buggy World Out There A Carnegie Mellon University study analyzes why software contains so many bugs. — Paula Sharick Java Hotfix Feedback, a RIS-Based XP Installation Bug, and Several Other Hotfixes Read about some feedback for the critical Java hotfix, learn about an RIS-based XP Installation bug fix, and find out how to fix several other Win2K problems. — Paula Sharick Latest Win2K Bug fixes Read about an RPC-based memory leak, an Explorer file-delete bug, an NTFS startup fix, and more. — Paula Sharick Looking for Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack Updates Responding to a reader query, columnist Paula Sharick went in search of information about Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack updates. — Paula Sharick Lost Security Audit Records; Privilege Elevation Vulnerability; Defrag and Password Complexity Errors Paula Sharick discusses a problem that might cause you to lose security audit records, a serious privilege elevation vulnerability in the Windows 2000 debugger, a password comlexity problem, and a bogus disk defrag error. — Paula Sharick LSA Problems; Enabling Kerberos Event Logging Paula Sharic describes two problems with Win2K’s Local Security Authority, several issues relating to Win2K and NT 4.0 migration and coexistence, and a handy tip about Kerberos event logging. — Paula Sharick Mailto Address List Truncated; Post-SP6a Fixes Paula Sharick discusses a Mailto hotlink problem, post-SP6a bug fixes, the NTRights utility, Netlogon, and more. — Paula Sharick MDAC Critical Security Hotfix Paula Sharick discusses a vulnerability in MDAC's remote query functions. — Paula Sharick Messenger Service Spam Find out how you can prevent spammers from using the Messenger service to deliver unsolicited pop-ups on your screen. — Paula Sharick Microsoft Reissues Windows XP SMB Security Hotfix Paula Sharick discusses a new XP SMB hotfix, an "Eject PC" Bug Fix, a Task Scheduler problem, and a USB device bug fix — Paula Sharick Microsoft Releases Office 2000 SP3 Learn about upgrading your systems to the most recent Office version. — Paula Sharick Microsoft Releases Service Pack 6a Columnist Paula Sharick reports on Microsoft's release of SP6a for Windows NT 4.0; also, problems with RAS, fonts and NT Workstation, PPTP LAN connections, and more. — Paula Sharick Microsoft Search Problems, RRAS/VPN Server Memory Leak, and Other Concerns Microsoft's search engine is out of service. Also learn how to disable SSDP service messages and read about a RRAS/VPN server TCP/IP memory leak. — Paula Sharick Microsoft's New Security Update Procedure; Improved Office Update Inventory Tool Learn the details of Microsoft's new security update procedures and discover the improvements in the latest version of the Office Update Inventory Tool. — Paula Sharick More About Installing Win2K SP2; An SP2 IE Corruption Paula Sharick revisits the NT 4.0 post-SP6a security rollup and discusses installing Win2K SP2, offline file synchronization, and more. — Paula Sharick More IE Problems; Various Win2K Fixes Columnist Paula Sharick discusses an IE online error-reporting utility, a Win2K TCP/IP firewall bug fix, AD Replication, and more. — Paula Sharick More on Win2K-NT 4.0 Coexistence Paula Sharick discusses several problems that can arise if you run a Windows 2000 machine in a Windows NT 4.0 domain. — Paula Sharick More Win2K Post-SP1 Bugs and Fixes — Paula Sharick More Win2K Pre-SP2 Bug Fixes Columnist Paula Sharick discusses the account and password bugs and the security vulnerabilities that Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) corrects. — Paula Sharick More Win2K-NT 4.0 Coexistence; New Win2K Bug Fixes In a follow up, Paula Sharick shares reader feedback and new solutions to common problems with Win2K-NT 4.0 coexistence. — Paula Sharick More Windows 2000 Post-Service Pack 2 Hotfixes Paula Sharick discusses several recent Win2K post-SP2 hotfixes, including fixes for RAID I/O performance degradation, various blue screens, and a RRAS password problem. — Paula Sharick Moving Files with Local Accounts to a New Server Columnist Paula Sharick discusses cleaning up a corrupted DNS cache and moving files to a new server before turning to Windows 2000 installation observations. — Paula Sharick MSBlaster Fallout and MBSA Upgrade Supports Windows Server 2003 Learn about the consequences of last week's MSBlaster worm attack and read about the new MBSA upgrade. — Paula Sharick MSN Messenger Sends Endless UPnP Packets; Endless Loop with XP's Error-Reporting Feature Paula Sharick discusses the problems that result when a user installs MSN Messenger and a possible endless loop that occurs with XP's error-reporting component. — Paula Sharick MTS Installation Tips; A New Microsoft Search Page Plus Personal Web Server and Windows 9x and more Option Pack commentary. — Paula Sharick Musical Alerts; Clean Spool Files; DHCP Bug Fix Paula Sharick explain why music strains can alert you to Windows hardware problems; why Windows NT truncates new BIOS four-digit year; and more. — Paula Sharick NetWare Client Problems; Printing Issues Paula Sharick discusses a problem with Novel NetWare Client 4.6, various printing issues, a Compaq Carbon Copy blue screen, and more. — Paula Sharick New Bug Fixes for Windows 2003 and XP Systems Learn about the latest Windows 2003 and XP bugs and how to fix them. — Paula Sharick New IE Security Rollup Microsoft released a new IE security rollup that eliminates four new script-based vulnerabilities. — Paula Sharick New Microsoft Support Site; Win2K Server Support Paula Sharick reviews Microsoft's comprehensive new support site and discusses how to get support for Win2K Server systems. — Paula Sharick New Multiprocessor Issues; More Desktop Shortcuts Paula Sharick discusses a post-SP2 FRS update, issues that apply to multiprocessor systems, a Recycle Bin problem, and more. — Paula Sharick New Qchain Release Corrects Versioning Bug; Disappearing Network Connections Read about a new release that fixes a bug in Qchain and learn about a problem with the Network and Dial-Up Connections Group. — Paula Sharick New Security Hotfixes Microsoft has released hotixes for an XP unchecked buffer vulnerability and for a new VM security flaw. — Paula Sharick New Security Hotfixes, Advice for Upgrading Terminal Server Systems, and More USB Device Problems Learn about the new security hotfixes Microsoft released in June, as well as problems and solutions for a Terminal Server upgrade issue and USB devices. — Paula Sharick New Win2K Post-SP2 Security Rollup Dos and Don'ts Paula Sharick discusses the comprehensive security update for Windows 2000 post-Service Pack 2 (SP2) systems that Microsoft released January 30. — Paula Sharick New Windows 2000 Post-SP2 Bugs Paula Sharick discusses several bugs that affect Windows 2000 post-Service Pack 2 (SP2) systems. — Paula Sharick NLB, IE, Security Hotfixes Columnist Paula Sharick discusses several new hotfixes for Win2K NLB, Network DDE, IE, and Terminal Services. Also, SMS 2.0 SP3, the return of Ethan Frome, and more. — Paula Sharick No SP3 News; Cleaning up Your Windows 2000 Desktop Microsoft has posted no new items to the Win2K post-SP2 hotfix list, so Paula Sharick instead discusses ways to clean up your desktop. — Paula Sharick No Word About SP3; Network Printer Bug; and WMP Security Rollup Microsoft missed its target date for shipping Win2K SP3. Also learn about an RPC bug and the WMP security rollup. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 Bug Fixes; New Win2K Memory Leak Diagnostics Paula Sharick discusses a roaming profile printer bug fix, a DHCP bug fix, and new tools from Microsoft that can help you diagnose memory leaks. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 Post-SP6a Bug Fixes; NTFS Bug Fix Columnist Paula Sharick discusses several fixes for bugs that have appeared since Microsoft released Service Pack 6a and presents an NTFS fix. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 Post-SP6a Fixes; Preparing for SMS 2.0 SP2 Columnist Paula Sharick discusses NT 4.0 Option Pack updates, post-SP6a fixes, FAT to NTFS conversion problems, and more. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 Pre-SP7 Problems and Solutions Paula Sharick discusses a server service bug, a Dfs client bug, a roaming profile bug, new versions of the password filter for Win2K and NT 4.0, and a system hang. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 Replication Issue; Various Win2K Fixes Paula Sharick describes a Windows NT 4.0 replication problem and fixes for a Task Scheduler bug, a logon script bug, and more. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 SP7 Scuttled; New NT 4.0 Issues Columnist Paula Sharick discusses Microsoft's decision to abandon Service Pack 7 for NT 40 and reviews a few new NT 4.0 issues. — Paula Sharick NT 4.0 SP7; Win2K Post-SP1 Updates Columnist Paula Sharick discusses the release of NT 4.0 Service Pack 7 (SP7) and shares a few Windows 2000 post-SP1 updates. — Paula Sharick NTBackup and Exchange Server Nightmares Paula Sharick has another report from the trenches. She set out to test Windows 2000 Backup in her mixed-mode network, and things got ugly fast. — Paula Sharick Open Letter to Microsoft—a Follow-Up Paula Sharick reviews your responses to her previous column, in which she called for Microsoft to create OS-specific support Web sites. — Paula Sharick Open Letter to Microsoft; Post SP2 Bugs; An IE 5.0 Lag More from Paula Sharick about her open letter to Microsoft, Windows 2000 post-Service Pack 2 bugs, and a problem with IE 5.0. — Paula Sharick Option Pack Nightmares—a Follow Up Columnist Paula Sharick's frustration with the Windows NT Option Pack has subsided, but she's got some more constructive criticism for Microsoft. Plus, hidden drives and desktop shortcuts in SP4 and SP5. — Paula Sharick Password Issues; Troubleshooting Win2K SP2 Paula Sharick discusses RRAS and IAS password vulnerabilities, troubleshooting Win2K Service Pack 2, and managing Active Directory from Win2K Pro. — Paula Sharick Performance Monitor, DNS, and LDAP Bugs Paula Sharick discusses a Performance Monitor problem and several Windows 2000 bugs. — Paula Sharick Post-SP2 Bug List; Another FRS Hotfix; Two Terminal Services Fixes Paula Sharick discusses the Windows 2000 Post-SP2 bug list, a rerelease of the FRS hotfix that corrects NTFS bugs that Microsoft introduced with the previous FRS hotfix, and patches for several Terminal Services problems. — Paula Sharick Post-SP3 FRS Update Polishes Performance; and First 2003 Security Hotfix Microsoft releases a post-Win2K SP3 FRS tune-up that addresses several inefficiencies in the original replication model, and the company issues the first security hotfix of 2003 to eliminate a buffer overflow condition. — Paula Sharick Post-SP5 Hotfixes; Obscure Bug Reports Three new post-SP5 hotfixes, plus print server problems, emergency repair errors, and RRAS-induced system crashes. — Paula Sharick Preparing for SP3 Find out how to prepare your systems for upgrading to SP3 and learn about some known problems in the service pack. — Paula Sharick Print Queue, DNS Client, SPE, Msinfo32/WinMSD Bug Fixes Paula Sharick discusses several new bug fixes from Microsoft. — Paula Sharick | |||||||||||
